A Dark Reflection
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: A proud prince risks everything for his people as the family of Goku rally together to save him. As they journey down the road to salvation, they will discover what it means to be true saiyans. Sequel to Echoes from the Past and 250 years after the Shadow Dragon disaster.
1. Timely Reunion

**This fic is brought to you by TDS member AlphaShenron.**

**Disclaimer: TDS does not own Dragonball/Z/GT**

_Reach into your center and stretch it out._ Legs were crossed lotus style, hovering a meter above the smooth tiled floor. _Pool it into your muscles and let it resonate within you._ A white cape fluttered in the wind over a red sheath for an unremarkable red pole. _Let the energy flow along the coils and ease away the pain. _A large white mantle was attached to the cape and extended out to the left, leaving the right side free for the pole to stick out. _Now with the aches gone, contract and extend each individual fiber. Let the energy do the work. _A dark purple gi was worn over the bearer's tall and powerful frame, with the shirt and pants stretched to accommodate the wearer and a brown belt-like tail wrapped around his waist. _Ignore the pain, keep the flow steady. Ease out any knots before they appear. _Little brown moccasins were attached to the man's feet. Once long ago the man had jokingly referred to them as 'booties,' but now he wouldn't wear anything else. _When the fiber is finished, release it and move onto the next. When the group is done let the energy sit and revitalize the muscles, allowing it to be taken away and absorbed._ Black hair waved in the air, rising up in the air before gently arcing down as it submitted to gravity's will. _Relinquish control, let your body do what it knows to do._ The air itself thrummed with power. Energy wafted off of the man's form in waves, giving him an eerie blue glow. With a final pulse of power the man uncrossed his legs and returned to the floor, his mind quiet now that his workout is finished. His gaze swept over the world from his lofty perch, eyes surveying each city within their reach, looking for any sign of danger. Satisfied with what he saw, the man turned around and headed to the center temple on the heavenly platform.

On his way there, he passed a short rotund black genie. The genie didn't pause in his humming as the warrior walked past, the event having occurred repeatedly during his stay. So far the man had been here much longer than even the one who once wore the style of clothing he now emulated. Many years had passed since that time, and ever since the departure of the fighter's only child he had stayed up here, away from the world he had protected for so long. Space held his only remaining family and while the Earth had forgotten him, he had not forgotten it. Fifty years had passed since that fateful day when the eternal dragon Shenron had returned to the world and during that time, the warrior had only gotten stronger, and younger.

The man's genetics were inhuman; in the fact, they weren't human at all. A series of alternate genes led to the creation of naturally occurring stem cells that replenished his body. Combined with a boost in power with every injury, this was a recipe for the perfect warrior. Able to live forever and gain power indefinitely, this man could have easily taken over the cosmos had he so chosen to do so. But evil had never taken root in his heart, and every action led to the betterment of others. He had helped save the Earth countless times, had fought crime in its cities, and had even died for it. And while he sometimes felt the distant ki spikes of his friends and daughter, he never once left his home.

When Shenron had been summoned, it was the first time the man had seen him angry. In fact, angry didn't even begin to describe the raw fury of the Eternal Dragon. The dragon stared down at the man and Majuub, recognizing the two warriors from when he had personally arrived to carry the elder warrior's father away with him. The two of them should have realized the folly of reviving the Dragonballs.

"How dare you summon me once more! Have you not considered the consequences of your actions? Did you not learn from last time?"

Though the dragon's booming voice shook the entire Lookout, Dende stood firm.

"The world needs Dragonballs once more Shenron. Without them it will descend into chaos. Besides, we no longer have to worry about the effects of using them. Remember when Goku swallowed the four star ball? He purified it using his own energy and I can do the same easily."

Shenron's head actually reared back in surprise. He had not forgotten what Goku had done and the fact that Dende could easily do the same definitely changed his perspective.

"Very well, I will allow this to pass. Do not make me regret it. Do you have any wishes?"

"No I do not. This summoning was merely to inform you of our decision."

"Wait!" the man shouted up to Shenron, stepping forward. "What has become of my father, Goku?"

Shenron bowed his head, though whether in sorrow or shame, none of those gathered could tell.

"The one known as Goku exists no more. His body could not contain the power of the Dragonballs. He planned to absorb them, but instead, they absorbed him. Only his power knowledge, and purity remain; all other facets of his personality were erased. For what it is worth, I am sorry, Gohan."

Gohan was saddened to hear the news. After all this time, he had hoped that he would be able to see his father in Otherworld, but if he had been unable to contain the Dragonballs and was absorbed instead, then there was nothing he could do. Gohan was saddened more for his mother than anybody else. As she grew older the one thing she held onto was the belief that she would one day see her husband again, and it was painful to think that she was without that solace.

Gohan had actually given up on ever seeing his father again; with his power there was virtually nothing that could kill him, and with his love of fighting he doubted that his father would ever grow old and die. At least Shenron had finalized the notion.

The eternal dragon then began to glow, until finally he dispersed into seven distinct rays of light, each heading off in a separate direction. All except for one, the four star ball descended down to the Lookout to rest at Gohan's feet, the orb glowing faintly in response to the ring Gohan wore. Reaching down to pick it up, Gohan was shocked to feel a presence insert itself into his mind.

_'Your family has held onto this Dragonball for years, keeping it safe. It is only right that you should continue to do so. I think you will be able to handle one easily enough.' _And with that the ball pulsed once more before sinking down into his flesh, melting completely into his hand. Gohan felt power surge through his body, but also knowledge. Everything that his father knew, he now knew. The Kaio-Ken, the Genki Dama, Instant Transmission, the fusion dance, everything! While the power boost was minimal, the knowledge was far more useful, and while there were some things that Gohan did not want to know about, mainly his own conception and that of his brother, it would open up many new avenues for training and getting stronger. There was something else that snuck in with everything else as well though, some fleeting impression: a sense of warmth and love that vanished as quickly as it came.

* * *

Gohan entered the main temple, walking down the myriad hallways contained within to a room seldomly used. Opening the thick stone door, the demi-saiyan stepped onto the platform, located in the exact center of the room. With a glance upwards at the giant pendulum above his head, Gohan mentally pictured his destination. A full-body tug was the only warning he got before the room's magic whisked him off to another time.

Deciding to have a light warm up, Gohan chose for room take him back to before the Cell Games officially started. As the light faded from his eyes and returned, Gohan saw before him the familiar arena of the Cell Games, with Cell, standing in the center. A twitch of his ankle and Gohan soared through the air towards him, gravity pulling down on him the whole time. Cell turned to face him, wearing a look of disinterest until he saw Gohan's clothing.

"Do you have a death wish? My tournament isn't slated to start for three more days. If you want to die, then come then, or just wait until I win," Cell's tone was bored as he looked upon the figure in front of him.

"Oh I don't have any plans of dying just yet Cell; I'm just here for a warm up before I go," Gohan said cockily, a confident smirk on his face.

That comment made Cell unfold his arms and actually look at Gohan. Seeing the tail around his waist, he immediately assumed he was a saiyan or had saiyan blood. His clothing was almost exactly the same as Piccolo's, the only differences being that half the mantle was gone and there was no turban. There was also the Power Pole on his back, something that up till now he had thought was safely at Goku's home. Since he had never felt this man's presence before, he could only assume he had come from the future.

"You're Gohan aren't you?"

Gohan's eyebrows arched up; he was surprised that Cell figured it out so easily.

"Of course you are," the insect-like creature sneered. "Your reaction gave it away. Don't look so surprised I'm no stranger to time travel. I'm guessing you came back in time to stop me or some other form of nonsense."

"Oh none of that Cell. I'm just here to train. You don't win Cell, and you never will."

With that said, Gohan launched himself towards Cell, his aura bursting to life around him. He gave his opponent no time to react as he swung his left arm forward into his face, knocking the bio-android back several meters, and forcing his feet to dig deep into the arena. With his free hand, he reached up and unsheathed the Power Pole and extended it to a length that could be comfortably wielded with two hands. Gohan didn't bother transforming into a Super Saiyan, seeing as it would place him so high above Cell that there would be no benefits from his training. Granted, he wouldn't actually gain strength from training in the Pendulum Room, but it could still help him work on his tactics.

Cell finally managed to negate his momentum from the surprise attack and gazed at Gohan in wonder. His power was far greater than anybody else's on the planet. He might even have to use his full power. "Fine," he spat. "If you want to play, then don't blame me when you die."

Cell's wings flared out and he rushed at Gohan with his aura roaring up around him. Gohan adjusted his grip on the Power Pole and waited for Cell to meet him, and he did not have to wait long. Cell reared his fist back and sent it directly at Gohan's face, but before his fist met flesh, he Zanzokened out of the way leaving an afterimage in his wake. Gohan countered by letting out an explosive wave of ki from his body. Cell was pushed backwards several meters, surprised that Gohan had rebounded so easily. The demi-saiyan didn't even need to know where his opponent was; an area attack would ensure that he was safe in all directions.

Turning around, Gohan shortened the Power Pole down to one hand and then pointed it at Cell. Bracing the end closest to him with one hand, Gohan rapidly extended it into his foe's stomach then retracted it before repeating the action. The Power Pole's first impact drove the air out of his lungs and the second sent him flying towards the large rock formation that Earth's Special Forces would eventually rest on. With a quick flare of his energy, Cell stopped himself in midair just inches away from the formation. Glaring down at Gohan, Cell decided to power up and teach the man a lesson in pain and power.

"I'll admit you have surprised me, but this ends now. I don't have time to play around with you."

Cell's power instantly soared upwards, stopping when it reached the level that he would fight Goku at, confident it would be enough.

Stretching his body out straight, Cell leered down and taunted Gohan. "Any last words?"

Gohan sheathed the Power Pole and nodded. "Yep! Just this though: Kaio-Ken times three!"

Gohan's body erupted into red ki as his power quickly jumped up much higher than it had been. He was still weaker than Cell, but that was the point of this exercise. Placing two fingers to his forehead, Gohan warped directly behind Cell and placed his free hand on the insect's back. Gohan charged ki into his palm and fired it directly through Cell's unguarded body. The green and black fighter clutched at the open wound in surprise before flipping upside down and landing a kick directly on Gohan's shoulder.

Gohan felt around his new wound open as he violently smashed into the ground. The instant he touched it, his nerves screamed as if they were on fire. Gohan was surprised to see how much damage Cell had done; he had broken his left clavicle in one hit.

_Well he did say he was done playing around. Well, time for the next level I guess._

Gohan lurched to his feet, fighting the urge to grab his wounded shoulder. Drawing a deep breath, he braced himself for the pain as he shouted, "Kaio-Ken times four!"  
His shoulder screamed in protest, but Gohan had been expecting just that and knew how to stop it. He sent his ki into the wound, finding the screaming nerves and silencing them, ending the signals of pain. Turning around to face the smug android, Gohan glared at him, his old anger resurfacing at the look on his face.

_I'm going to enjoy ripping him apart again._

The demi-saiyan poured ki into his right hand, then lobbed it at Cell. The android Zanzokened away from the blast and, noticing that it arced back towards him, fired a blast at it to counter. Feeling a rush of air against his back, Cell flared his wings out and extended his tail, stabbing it directly behind him.

Gohan dived to the side, causing the tail to miss his right lung and go directly under his armpit. Seeing his chance, the warrior grabbed onto the tail and forced the stinger open. Ignoring Cell's shout of surprise, Gohan capitalized on his advantage and collected ki into his throat. His eyes winced at the sting and his throat felt like he had just thrown up, only the sensation was twice as bad. Despite the pain, Gohan fired the ki directly down Cell's tail, causing the bio-android to scream out in agony as the energy traveled along the tail and directly into his internal organs.

Whipping the vulnerable appendage out of Gohan's grasp, Cell turned around and unleashed everything he had from point blank range. Gohan had no time to raise his defenses and the blast carried him off into the distance, the ki attempting to eat away at his flesh. Cell rocketed up into the atmosphere, content that he had bought himself some time. Reaching the safety of space, Cell relaxed and let his body take care of the damage. He could feel his power increasing rapidly as his cells replicated and replaced the damaged tissue, beginning with the life-threatening internal injuries.

_This Gohan from the future is a much bigger pain than I realized. He hasn't even transformed into a Super Saiyan and he's this powerful. If he transforms, then that could be the end of me!_

Looking down at the Earth, Cell had an idea. _If he can't breathe then he can't fight, or live. It's a shame I couldn't fight Goku, but his son has proven too dangerous; perfection will not be defeated no matter what!_

Blue ki started to flicker into view in between the creature's two hands as he drew them together by his side. Cell focused, charging his Kamehameha, and ignored the blast leaving Earth's atmosphere several hundred miles away from his location.

He started to put all the ki in his body into the attack; everything not related to keeping him alive would be used to destroy the Earth. The bruise on his cheek started to sting and the area around his left shoulder started to ache. All his injuries were becoming more pronounced as the ki used to stabilize them went away. Cell felt... odd. All his extremities were growing stiff and began to feel tingly. His eyesight started to blur, similar to the head rushes some of the humans experienced whenever they stood up too fast or suddenly. Finally when it was unbearable, he brought his arms forward, with some difficulty, and fired all of the collected ki down directly towards the planet.

_Ow, ow, ow, ow. _Unwilling to scream, Gohan merely gritted his teeth and repeated his mantra: mind over matter after all. Finally getting fed up with Cell's blast, he flooded his muscles with ki, expanding them to many times their normal size, and threw the blast up into space.

The ki's heat left his gi torn to pieces and parts of his body literally smoking. Gohan was angry with himself; he should have seen that attack coming, but had never expected Cell to be so desperate. It seemed that that last attack had definitely left quite an impact on the android.

_Gotta get used to charging ki into my throat,_ he mentally berated._ Piccolo could do it and even Nappa used it once. And each time they did so it was more powerful than a blast concentrated into the hand, must be the difference in surface area._

Gohan was brought out of his musings when he felt Cell's power climb higher than what his max had been. It still wasn't as big of an increase compared to when he tried to self-destruct but it was still significant. Looking up, he saw a bright blue light in the sky and realized that it was an attack. Gohan's eyes bugged out when he realized the sheer amount of ki it contained; it was much higher than what Cell had used to try to kill Gohan in their final struggle.

_And this is what I get for being careless. Vegeta would kick my ass if he ever found out about this._

"Kaio-Ken times ten!"While it wasn't the highest level that he could take the Kaio-Ken, Gohan struggled to maintain the power, then he lost it. The damage to his body was much too severe to sustain it. With the Kaio-Ken backfiring on him, he was left much weaker than he had been when he started. Looking up into the face of the attack, Gohan frowned,

"Ah shit, at least it isn't real."

Then it was upon him and there was purest agony for a second, then it was gone, and the world faded to black.

* * *

Gohan fell down on his hands and knees with a gasp. Even though he was accustomed to the room's effects, it still floored him on every return. His power spiked for a moment along with the urge to smash his fist into the floor to vent his frustration, but it quickly dropped down to normal levels as he calmed himself. Releasing a pent-up breath, Gohan slowly started to stand. Gohan turned toward the exit and walked out of the Pendulum Room toward the main platform.  
His muscles throbbed painfully from his earlier meditation, so he opened his floodgates and let his ki sooth each one. Gohan was glad he had thought of this new training method: using his ki to utterly destroy his muscles in a process similar to actual contractions. He was able to more thoroughly repair each muscle causing his strength to grow much faster. When coupled with his technique training in the Pendulum, he could get the physical training aspect done quickly and then train in a life or death situation without the actual death.  
Sensing that Majuub was waiting for him, Gohan gravitated towards the young man. Though he was now several hundred years old, he still looked as young as he did when he first fused with Mr. Buu, the good-half of Majin Buu. One of the unforeseen advantages of it was that he was essentially immortal; the only way to kill him would be the same way that his previous self had been killed, an all out attack to destroy every atom of his being. While his regeneration wasn't nearly as effective as the real Majin Buu's due to having an organic body, it was similar to namekian regeneration but without the energy drain. Initially Majuub had been stronger than Gohan, but the difference had faded rapidly after Videl's death. When Videl's health had gone south, Gohan had stopped training to focus entirely on her which enabled Majuub to pull ahead in that time. When Videl died, however, Gohan threw himself into his training, gaining strength in leaps and bounds, miles ahead of anything Majuub could achieve. At his present full power, Gohan was many times stronger than Majuub, but ever since Shenron had first been summoned and the four star Dragonball was stored inside his body that had changed. Gohan ended up teaching Majuub all of the techniques that his father had withheld from him, so with the Kaio-Ken Majuub could bring his power upwards to match Gohan's. In fact the highest that Majuub could go with it was a multiplier of one hundred and twenty-seven.  
Raising a hand to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight, Gohan stepped out of the temple and onto the platform. He spotted Majuub over at the edge standing next to Dende, and made his way towards the two men.  
"...at least the village doesn't treat me like some kind of god. Man that would be awkward, imagine me, a god," Majuub was saying to the nodding Dende. Gohan only managing to catch the tail end of his statement as he got closer.  
"I can see how that could be a problem," the namekian agreed. "It is so odd to see how short ordinary human lives are, after all by my race's standards I would still be considered a teenager in terms of age. Luckily our species does not view young ones as inexperienced; we value all input no matter the source. Sometimes wisdom flies from the mouths of the young. This is true for all beings, but it seems only some realize it."  
Gohan by this point had reached the two of them and waited, content to rest his muscles. He did not have to wait long as Dende immediately noticed him and included him in their conversation.  
"How did your training go, Gohan?" the Guardian of Earth asked his friend.  
"I got cocky," he sighed, ashamed. "Cell beat me. Quite easily I'm afraid."  
"How? Didn't you beat him when you were like what, eleven?"asked a shocked Majuub. The idea of Gohan losing to someone he had beat as a child was ludicrous, to say the least.  
"I decided not to transform into any of the Super Saiyan forms. Originally, I needed to go Super Saiyan Two to kill him. That was the first time that I realized I had broken through the barrier. I pushed him into a corner and he got desperate, but I had forgotten how many tricks he had up his sleeve. He ended up destroying the planet to kill me. Granted, with that attack he pulled off I don't know whether or not he would've needed to destroy Earth. I am curious as to how he managed to make such a strong attack when he was weaker than he had been when I killed him."  
Dende chose that moment to interject, "I saw what happened. Cell put all his energy except what he needed to live into the attack. It was a last ditch effort in case you transformed. That thought was what made him so desperate."  
Gohan opened his mouth to talk when Dende whipped his head up towards the sky and frowned.  
Tensing up, Majuub asked, "What is it Dende?"  
"A ship is entering Earth's atmosphere, but I can't tell whose or how many are in it though. Or what their intent is."  
A slight flicker of ki caught everyone's attentions. Majuub looked at Gohan with a grim look; while the flicker had been brief it was enough to to show the person was powerful.  
"Seems that someone isn't good at hiding their ki," Majuub said.  
"Or maybe something else," Gohan added. "Any number of reasons could account for the flicker. Just be ready for anything."  
The ship came into view at that point, coming in for a landing directly on the Lookout. It was beat up, with various pieces of scrap metal welded onto it. One thing was for certain: the Capsule Corp. logo was on it, faded as it was. Coming to a stop above the Lookout, its landing gear came out and down and settled onto the tiles. With a rush of escaping gas, the hatch opened and lowered, two figures present on it, a man and a woman. The woman had spiky black hair that went in every direction down to just below her collarbone. She was of average height at around five feet and nine inches. She was wearing a dark blue armor similar to that of the old Planet Trade Organization but it covered much more than the older models. Solid armor pieces covered each muscle group with armored flexible segments at each joint; the armor covered her whole body with seemingly no seams, not even at the boots. The most noticeable thing about it though was the many cracks that adorned its surface. What shocked Gohan and Majuub the most was the brown tail wrapped around her waist just like Gohan's was. The man was wearing the same type of armor in even worse condition and he was wounded. A fresh scar was cut diagonally on his right eye, leading away from the center of his serious face. His right arm was in a sling and he stood with the majority of his weight on his left leg. A sword was strapped onto his back and he had long purple hair.  
Hopping off of the platform, the woman turned towards the wounded man and held her hand out to him. The man smiled as he took it and she helped him off the platform, it was obvious that his right leg pained him from the way he had stood. Turning towards Gohan and Majuub, his smile got bigger and he spoke, "Hey Gohan, almost didn't recognize you without the glasses. Did ya guys miss me?"  
It was Trunks.


	2. Oaths and Blood

**This chapter is brought to you by AlphaShenron.**

Gohan managed to cross half of the distance separating himself and Trunks before the woman with him attacked. He noticed how wide her eyes had gotten, but as he moved before they hardened and she launched herself at him. He paid her no heed as she came towards him; to his trained eyes she was incredibly slow, much slower than he had been as a teenager. Her fist struck his face when he was about two meters from Trunks and it did absolutely nothing. Gohan simply looked at her before looking at Trunks who was smiling.

"She's a spitfire, isn't she? Just met her a couple of months ago, really." Trunks said, that cocky grin still on his face.

Majuub and Dende merely stood back and waited, both curious to see what the saiyan woman would do.

The woman growled deeply in her throat and withdrew her fist. She looked deeply into Gohan's eyes and spoke, "If you ever move towards him like that again I will end you, do I make myself clear." While the words themselves formed a question, the way she spoke it was obvious that to her it was a statement and one not needed to be answered, at least not by Gohan.

Gohan returned the stare before disregarding her completely and turning his attention back to Trunks. The way he did so was clearly meant as a snub to her as he deemed her unimportant and non-threatening. The woman bristled and it looked like she would strike out at him again, but she visibly calmed herself before stepping back to Trunks' side.

"So where exactly did you find her?" Gohan asked.

Trunks flashed that cocky grin of his again before clicking his tongue in his mouth in a tut-tut noise as if he were scolding a child.

"Gohan, Gohan, Gohan. Oh how your manners have rotted away on this harsh planet. You have forgotten the first rule of entertaining company: giving them food. Now where is Mister Popo? I am absolutely starving!"

Gohan's eyebrows rose up into the air, "You're still a cocky little shit, aren't you Trunks?"

"You can blame Goten for that, I'm afraid. To be fair, he's always been the manipulative one."

Gohan and Trunks looked at each other before simultaneously bursting out into laughter and heartily clapping each other on the back.

"It's great to see you again Trunks. Tell me, how is my little brat of a brother doing?"

"Oh Goten is fine. He's still kicking ass and taking names. Well when he's not sleeping, that is."  
Before Gohan could reply, the unknown woman interrupted him, "Wait a second. Your brother is Goten? How could a warrior like him possibly be related to a clown like you?"

Trunks paled as the implications of what she said settled. Gohan's silent glare bored into the woman, who returned it with a look of superiority.

"Oh, I'm not denying that you have some strength and speed, but you can't possibly be hiding much more power. Compared to fighters like Trunks, Goten, and I, you are just a weakling."

Gohan may not have possessed the unhealthy amount of pride that most saiyans seemed to, but even he was proud of his abilities and certainly did not enjoy some upstart stranger belittling him without knowing what he was capable of.

"What is your name?" he growled out.

The woman smirked at him, clearly happy that she had gotten under his skin so easily. Her tail swung side to side in smug contempt as she replied, "My name is Tatsoi, something you should remember worm."

Trunks got in between the two saiyans and tried to separate the two, "Hey guys how bout we go inside and eat, huh? I'm sure after a nice meal we can sit down and have a nice long peaceful chat."

Gohan ignored his friend, instead saying, "Trunks, go see Dende. He'll heal you up. If you have any intention of stopping me, you'll need to be at your best."

"Please don't kill her, Gohan," Trunks pleaded, but his attempt failed as Tatsoi let out a bark of laughter.

"Oh please. It's this worm that's going to need protection, Trunks. While you go get healed, he's going to be fighting to survive. I won't even have to go Super Saiyan before he's paste on my boots."

"You talk too much." Those four words were all Gohan said before he smashed his forehead into her's.

The light tap sent her flying across the platform. Tatsoi gritted her teeth as her feet dug into the tiles below her. Finally coming to a stop, she took a step backwards to balance herself and almost stepped off of the edge. Looking back over her shoulder down at the ground then back to where they had landed she growled. That little punk's cheap shot had nearly thrown her off of the platform. She glared at the coward's distant form before blinking rapidly as her left eye started to sting. Bringing a hand up to wipe at her eyes, when she withdrew it she was appalled to see a thick smear of blood on it. The worm had managed to draw blood!

She looked back to where he was and was shocked to see that he had disappeared. Tatsoi was unable to find him as she quickly glanced around. She didn't have to. Gohan zanzokened right in front of her and planted an uppercut directly into her stomach, further fracturing the already damaged armor. All the air rushed out of Tatsoi's lungs and she dropped down to her knees, clutching her stomach. That one blow made her feel like her internal organs had shot up into her diaphragm, which her stomach actually did. Tired of the humiliation, Tatsoi gathered all of her energy and burst through the barrier into Super Saiyan. With a wild yell, she sprung up at Gohan's standing form with a violent uppercut. It hit him on the chin and snapped his head back with a loud crack.

Tatsoi grinned; she was breathing heavily but he was still no match for her super saiyan might. "I warned you, but you just _had _to push me. What is it with you weaklings that makes you all want to challenge me? First Nopal and now you... it's a pity you don't seem to have Goten's strength. Oh well."

"Like I said earlier, you talk too much," Gohan growled. Tatsoi stared at the man in front of her, who brought his head forward and glared. For the first time since she met Trunks, the woman felt fear. She hadn't even left a bruise on his face and she had put everything into that attack.

"I've known people like you all my life," Gohan continued. "You take one look at someone and immediately deem them weak or worthless. If you hadn't come here with Trunks, I wouldn't even tolerate your presence on this planet. You better be careful from now on and consider this a warning; I won't hesitate to beat you senseless if it happens again."

With that said Gohan turned around and walked back to Trunks who had a worried expression on his face. His eyes constantly scanned back and forth from Gohan's location to Tatsoi's; it almost seemed that he was worried that Tatsoi might try something.

It turns out that he was right to be worried. In an explosion of energy, Tatsoi rocketed towards Gohan. To everyone on the Lookout it seemed that she was moving in slow motion; even Dende could see how slow she was moving, his senses augmented by his guardianship and proximity to his seat of power. Gohan looked at Trunks, who had an embarrassed look on his face as well as what seemed like resignation. He looked at Gohan and shrugged, "Please go easy on her."

"Sure, but this her last strike," the demi-saiyan promised. "One more offense, and I will fulfill the promise I made to her."

Glancing back over at Tatsoi, he noticed that she had covered only half of the distance separating them, which gave him an ample amount of time to get ready. Bringing up the hand that was closest to her up to his forehead, he collected ki into it. Once he had enough to injure, but not kill, her he waited. He turned to her, and observed that her face was contorted in rage and with what looked like tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Gohan paid those no heed as he waited for her to get within striking distance.

_Almost there, just a little bit further. Okay her right arm is about sixty-one centimeters long and it is currently extended. I just need to aim for the middle of her hand and she should be okay. Okay, wait, wait, now! _Gohan thrust his arm straight out to the side and placed the collected ki directly onto the middle finger of her hand. He then released the energy and the Masenko wave flowed over her body like water, carrying her away and off into the distance. Gohan had outgrown the practice of announcing his attacks; when you're in physical combat, you don't announce whether you're going to punch or kick. The same should apply to special techniques as well.

Trunks had been looking at Gohan strangely for the majority of their brief 'fight' and began openly staring when his fellow half-breed unleashed an attack that completely blew away his untrained Super Saiyan companion. The weird thing was that Gohan's energy never wavered during the entire skirmish.

Gohan was curious. "What's with the weird look Trunks?" he inquired.

"How did you do that?" the lavender-haired boy demanded.

Gohan's eyebrows dropped in confusion. "What the Masenko?"

"No! Of course not! How did you manage to completely wipe the floor with Tatsoi when your ki output is the exact same as a low level human's?"

Gohan beamed. He loved it when people asked just that. "Well I'm actually quite proud of this discovery. You know how ki is energy, and energy can be measured? Well the only way it can be measured is if it is somehow radiated, so find a way to block the radiation and you find a way to block being sensed."

"So what, did you manage to insulate your ki or something?"

Gohan's eyes had a glint to them, now that he had a new person to explain his discovery too. By this time, Majuub and Popo had both walked into the main temple to prepare tables and food while Dende had begun to drift toward Trunks and Gohan.

"Energy radiates out from the body in several different mediums: light, heat, force, and every other form of electromagnetic waves," Gohan continued. "Whenever we aren't doing anything, you can still sense the amount of force that is bundled into each muscle just waiting to be released. All I did was place a wafer thin film of ki over each individual muscle fiber at the exact opposite frequency which cancels out its emission and makes it undetectable. As long as I keep the film in place, it doesn't matter how high I power up as long as I manage to control and contain my aura."

"That is oh so complicated but yet it is oh so brilliant! No wonder you have a PhD in physics!"

Dende cleared his throat and butted in. "I don't mean to interrupt, but your lady friend is now spiraling down to earth unconscious."

Both Trunks and Gohan looked at Dende then off to the right and up, each having locked onto Tatsoi's energy signature instantly. Trunks sighed, "I'll go get her," and then his form blurred before finally settling into its new shape of a man holding a woman.

"Super speed, gotta love it!" he happily chirped to Gohan and Dende.

Dumping Tatsoi on the ground in front of Dende, Trunks stood back and allowed the guardian to heal the woman. Within a few seconds, he was done and Tatsoi regained consciousness. Luckily Dende had the presence of mind to instantly back away lest she strike out at him. Tatsoi ignored Dende and Trunks completely and focused all of her attention on Gohan.

"You!" she exclaimed while pointing a finger at him.

Gohan comically looked around before gesturing to himself and saying, "Who, me?"

Tatsoi bristled with rage, "Yes you! Now stop mocking me! Just what the hell are you?"

"What? You aren't you happy enough that I decided to let you live?"

Majuub called out from the main temple, "Don't listen to him he's lying! He doesn't even brush away the butterflies that land on him when he meditates, he's such a softy!"

Tatsoi and everyone else ignored Majuub, though Trunks did snicker at Gohan's expense.

"Nobody with your level of power could possibly pull off what you just did. So I ask you again, what are you?" Tatsoi continued.

Gohan grinned, a bit of his long suppressed viciousness coming out, and decided to thoroughly scare the shit out of this woman. His muscles rippled and danced, slowly expanding and retracting as he smiled crazily at her. Arteries and veins began to pulse and stand out from his skin, not only completely unnerving Tatsoi but also weirding Trunks and Dende out just the slightest bit.

Gohan's hair began to stand up and turn golden, while he could have ascended instantly, Gohan decided to draw it out instead. So his hair continued to fluctuate between black obsidian and gold with bits of bio-electricity arcing out from his body. Finally his hair remained golden, but he didn't stop there. No, Gohan wanted to show off now. His hair started to elongate and even more bio-electricity began to propagate around his body. He easily finished the transformation to the second level and decided to kick it up a notch. Shedding his ki layer, Gohan revealed his power in all its glory and powered up even further. Gohan maintained his control however and so no winds were generated and no forces threatened to spill everyone off of the surface of the Lookout. His hair reached down to his waist and lifted upwards again. Gone were the jagged spikiness of the second Super Saiyan form; his hair was now smoothly flowing and his new power seemed to have no affect on his emotions.

Tatsoi flinched back and stared at him, first in awe, then fear. Gohan's power was insanely high, large enough to go toe-to-toe with most of the shadow dragons and win. Gohan was now about as strong as his father's Super Saiyan Four when he fought Syn Shenron after he had taken all of the saiyans' power for his own use. Trunks was grinning madly and his mind was whirring; with Gohan this powerful, they might just have a chance! Gohan's power was a product of his own innovative training methods and the merger with the Four-Star Dragonball which was currently embedded in his chest.

With a sigh Gohan released his power and reverted back to his base form. Turning to Trunks and Dende he said, "Lets go inside and eat. It's easier to talk on a full stomach."

The others nodded in agreement and started to walk towards the temple, where now the delightful aroma of food was wafting out of. Seeing the others start to walk off without her Tatsoi got up and ran to catch up, falling into step on Trunks' left side and avoiding Gohan on his right. As they neared the doorway to the complex, Trunks turned and nudged Gohan's side, calling the older man's attention. Trunks leaned in close and wrapped his right arm around Gohan's shoulders and asked him, "Say, just out of curiosity, how strong is Majuub? Is he anywhere close to you by chance?"

"If he pushes himself to his utmost capacity, he can actually go quite a bit higher than me though it hurts him. He now knows the Kaio-Ken, so he can adapt to pretty much any situation. Why do you ask?"

"Oh like I said, just out of curiosity." Now Trunks was certain; he had definitely made the right move by coming back to Earth.

"So Trunks," Dende started conversationally. "I see that the mission has been a success. How many other saiyans have you guys found?"

"Well, Dende, we have actually found thirty-seven saiyans scattered around the galaxy, but about eighty years ago we stopped finding them. It was then that my dad decided that we should look in the other galaxies for saiyans. He thought that maybe there might be an outpost or colony out there and we could get lucky."

Majuub leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, "Well did you guys get lucky?"

Trunks' face turned grim. "If anything, we got unlucky."

Gohan stopped eating and looked at Trunks, but before he could voice his question Majuub beat him to it.

"What do you mean unlucky?"

"Oh we found a planet alright, and the saiyans there were powerful. They had to be considering that the gravity there was at least one-hundred and twenty-seven times higher than Earth's. After we scanned the planet, we determined that at least some of them were at least Super Saiyans so father decided that a small group would go down. He decided that it would be him, Goten, and I who would go down to the surface, which we did using some old space pods so that the main craft could remain in orbit."

"Then what happened?" Dende this time with the question.

Trunks' face darkened further.

"When we arrived they were in the middle of several tournaments. Dad decided that we would go watch one and see what was going on. We ended up staying till the end of the tournament where we found out something sinister. We saw sixteen men walk out, escorted and chained. They were paraded up to the winner of the tournament, and then the announcer said something about the victor receiving his prize. The winner executed each of the sixteen men, but it didn't stop there. More people came out, all women this time, and the announcer this time said for the victor to choose his 'breeding stock.' The one that he chose was Tatsoi.

Tatsoi spoke for the first time since they all sat down to eat. "The next thing I knew, Trunks was in front of me and the guards were unconscious. Trunks saved me and for that I owe him a blood oath, I am his willing servant until my debt is repaid, which it never will be."

"I'm sorry I'm afraid that I am not familiar with the term 'breeding stock,' what does that mean?" Dende asked the others while making sure he did not look at Tatsoi. The female scared him, she was... volatile.

"I'll tell you what it means green man, it means that my only purpose is to get fucked by men and pop out babies. Those pigs back on Quindflear treated women like dirt, the concept of equality is as foreign to them as letting small children live. They don't even let women fight or get stronger; for most the only way to get stronger is if whoever is on top is too rough on them."

Looking over, he noticed that Majuub had a confused expression. Content to sit back and watch, Gohan let Majuub give voice to what was bothering him.

"If you couldn't train then how are you a Super Saiyan?"

Gohan seized upon that train of thought and followed it. If what she said is true and women on Quindflear hadn't been able to train, then how did she become a Super Saiyan? Secret training by parents? A kind partner? Or was she abused enough that she got powerful enough and just snapped. Its obvious that she has no control over the form, the sheer ferocity and fluctuations of her ki proved that. So with no form of training, it must have happened recently.

"Oh let's just say the last person who put something in my mouth lost it. I almost died several times from the constant beatings I got after that little incident. Finally I just snapped, killed the men, got captured, and was judged strong enough to be good breeding stock for tournament champions."

Gohan's eyes darted over to Trunks, the man's knuckles were white and his muscles were subtly spasming. It is obvious that he did not enjoy hearing what had been Tatsoi's life before he had intervened. Gohan was glad to see that the man's heart had not changed and that it was still in the right place. He also applauded Trunks on his self-control; if Videl had been put through any of that, then Gohan would have sought out each of those men and beat them within an inch of their lives and hung them up by their entrails. Seeing that they were getting off topic, Gohan decided to intervene.

"So after the tournament what happened Trunks?" Gohan made sure to emphasize the man's name in order to get his attention.

When Trunks looked up, Gohan was alarmed to see how his pupils were dilated. Trunks obviously cared for this woman; saiyan pupils didn't normally dilate in illuminated spaces unless there was a massive amount of adrenaline coursing through the body. The dilation enabled them to keep track of their opponents visually in all environments. So Trunks must have been imagining what he would have done to the men and his body took over.

"Huh, yeah what?" Trunks said in an almost snappish tone.

Gohan responded only by repeating his question and rushing enough energy through his eyes to turn them teal, a subtle way of dominating Trunks and get him to back down. The plan worked, Trunks averted his eyes and mumbled, "Sorry."

"After I intervened, Dad and Goten came down to join me and Dad questioned the announcer. The audience was howling for blood and seemed even more excited after what had just happened. Dad found out that they hold five tournaments each year with thirty-two fighters. The first sixteen to lose end up judged too weak to live and are killed by the champion. Each fighter is selected randomly from all around the planet and those who don't win but survive get their names put back in the lot until the next year. The champion is forever exempted from more tournaments and gets his choice of women. Well by the time Dad got the information it was already too late. An army of saiyans had shown up and they were under orders to retrieve at least one of us alive."

Trunks smiled sardonically. "They severely underestimated us. We ran through them like tissue paper at first, though we didn't kill any. Dad was determined to avoid spilling blood, but unfortunately it soon became necessary. More arrived and it became obvious that they were of a higher caliber. They were all Super Saiyans, and at their head was a Legendary Super Saiyan. That was the first time worry crossed Dad's face. He told us to get out of there while he held them off. Well when we turned around, there were two others behind us, also Super Saiyans. We managed to fight them off but we had to go Super Saiyan Two in order to do it. It was then that Tatsoi first pledged herself to me by right of a Blood Oath; I didn't want to leave her behind anyway so that worked out nicely. Right when we got to our pods, we felt Dad's and three other's power levels skyrocket. It seemed that our dads weren't the only Super Saiyan Fours out there Gohan. When we were about to enter our pods two more saiyans showed up. They weren't as strong as the two at the tournament but they were still no laughing matter. Goten and I decided to end it quick so we fused into Gotenks. That was a stupid idea."

"How was that a stupid idea Trunks?" Gohan asked.

Trunks blew air out his nose, shook his head, and then rubbed his face, "They copied it. And they weren't the only ones to see it, our pods had around thirty saiyans near them that saw us use the Fusion Dance. What was supposed to be a one on two turned into a one on sixteen. Obviously we won but we got hurt badly. Luckily injuries don't translate over fully when you separate otherwise me and Goten wouldn't have made it off that rock alive. Goten ended up getting tired and I got the injuries, not exactly a fair trade off as you could tell when I showed up. I would've enjoyed it immensely if it had split the difference between us but no."

Tatsoi took over now. "They took off from the planet and up to the ship in orbit where they gave me a spare set of armor so I wouldn't have to wear rags all the time. Then Trunks decided that we should come here and get help while leaving Goten in charge."

"It sounds like you guys got out okay though. Why not just leave and forget about them?" Majuub asked. But before Tatsoi or Trunks could answer him, Gohan did.

"Not all of them got out though. Vegeta didn't make it did he?"

Trunks nodded. "They captured him, but he's still alive. His pod is still down there and I'm afraid they might figure out how to use it. Thats why we came here, to get help. Will you help us rescue my father and make sure they won't be able to leave?"

Gohan nodded and clapped Trunks on the shoulder. "You never had to ask Trunks. After all, what are big brothers for?"

Trunks smiled and started to tear up. "You have no idea what this means to me Gohan. Thank you so much."

Tatsoi was confused and looked back and forth between Gohan and Trunks. Dende seeing this leaned over and whispered, "Trunks grew up with Gohan as a role model. Their families were already close and the friendship between Trunks and Goten made them grow closer. It was only natural that Trunks used Gohan as a substitute for the brother he never had."

Tatsoi nodded in understanding. She was now regretting her earlier course of action against Gohan. She had been caught off guard by Gohan's speed and thus attacked him without knowing how he was affiliated with Trunks. She never would have guessed that the connection between the two warriors ran so deeply.

Gohan stood up and spoke. "If everyone is done eating, then I say let's get packing and rescue ourselves a prince!"

Majuub shouted his agreement and with a flick of his finger, turned the remaining drinks into alcohol. Raising a glass up in the air, he proposed a toast, "To beating up bad guys and good friends!"

"To beating up bad guys and good friends!"

So began the preparation to invade hostile territory and rescue Vegeta.

Water dripped from the ceiling and stained the stone floor. There was nothing but darkness and the scurrying scuttle of small rodents to keep one company. But the room's one lone occupant knew he was not alone; he just had to stretch out his senses and he would find that he was surrounded on all sides. There would be no chances to escape, but that wouldn't stop Vegeta. He would try and try again until his captors gave up and decided to kill him; it was just the way he was.

Vegeta picked his head up and looked at where the door was located. The leader was coming and he was powered up to his max. Vegeta smirked: it was a blatant challenge and one Vegeta would enjoy taking up. The second the door opened, Vegeta transformed into Super Saiyan Four and launched himself at the man, his one good arm held back ready to throw a punch. When he was close enough, he unleashed the punch, but to his chagrin it was easily caught. The man tsked and with a quick twisting motion snapped Vegeta's arm. The only noise in the room was the sound of bone breaking; if he wanted to hear Vegeta scream then he would leave disappointed. Vegeta hadn't screamed when his other arm had been broken, and he wasn't planning on starting any time soon.

"If there is one thing I do admire about you Vegeta, it is your stubbornness. I knew your ancestor back when the homeworld still existed and he was a spineless coward. How sad it is that you share his name."

"Yes, yes, and this is the part where you spout off the normal bullshit about how I should help you and all. My answer remains the same: fuck you Cicuta."

"That may be for now, but one day soon you will break and tell us how to operate your ship. One day you will join us and, willingly or not, you will sire many powerful warriors."

Vegeta growled deeply in his throat; he had already had a woman and nobody was going to force him on another. One Super Saiyan Four looked at another, one was amused and the other angry.

"Keep it up Vegeta, cause I'm sure that Manchineel would love to spend time with you again. Until then, stay here in your nice comfortable room. Food is plentiful if you can find it. At least we gave you this much."

Cicuta's eyes turned hard at the end of his sentence and with a snarl he thrust his fist straight up into Vegeta's diaphragm, forcing the younger saiyan to his knees, struggling for breath. Turning around, he walked to the door, but as he was about to exit a ki blast impacted his shoulder making him pause in his steps. Seeing that he had his attention, Vegeta spoke.

"You and your precious legendary pet Manchineel can both kiss my ass, and you especially can go to hell!"

Vegeta made to fire another blast, but before he could, Cicuta gave a lazy wave of his hand and sent a kiai barreling towards Vegeta. Vegeta barely managed to roll to the side and avoid it and by the time he made it to his feet Cicuta was gone and the door was shut. Turning around, Vegeta surveyed the damage that Cicuta's attack left. The entire back wall of his cell had been pushed back several miles, seeing as how they were currently under ground, this meant that he would have to be careful not to collapse the ceiling on top of himself.

Vegeta shrugged, "At least I have more room to walk." and the prince went down the new tunnel, eager to see if anything could be found and used to his advantage.


	3. Memories of a Dead Man

**This chapter was brought to you by AlphaShenron! Hope you enjoy!**

"So Gohan, any idea when we can leave?" Trunks asked inquisitively as he stood next to his fellow hybrid. Both saiyans were on the edge of the Lookout, looking out into the world as the sun rose. Trunks had missed Earth dearly and it was good to see its natural beauty once more, most civilized planets he had visited had learned the lesson of taking care of their environment too late. This was the main reason Frieza had such a thriving planet trade business as the planets that had once supported a civilization were often on the verge of collapse. And as is the case with anything that has a limited supply and a high demand, it cost quite a lot, usually in the form of natural resources or physical indulgences. And in the wake of the Cold regime's defeat chaos had reigned, previously high ranking officers became warlords and the vast empire had been divided up into many small sectors, each rife with brutality and squalor.

Upon learning of what had happened Vegeta had started a secondary mission among his children and Goten. Eventually Pan was included on this after she contacted them via the ship's communicator. She left Earth when Oxri died, the big man having died childless. The mission was to look for any information on saiyan survivors and beat up some despots at the same time. Most of the new warlords still had access to Frieza's old archives so it was impossible to avoid diplomatic meltdown. Unfortunately the name saiyan no longer carried the weight that it once had so the younger and more ignorant warlords were usually the uncooperative ones. One even had the audacity to try and claim Pan as one of his own personal concubines; it took both Vegeta and Trunks to restrain Goten and stop him from destroying the planet in a fit of anger. The others were angered as well by that one but they also didn't have the familial bond that the uncle and niece shared.

Fortunately they had hit a literal jackpot when they stumbled upon one of Frieza's old warships on one of his old personal planets, sitting derelict in a forgotten hanger. Once they powered it up it was filled with data that dated to before Frieza's destruction of planet Vegeta. They found all of the mission data for the saiyan race from the beginning to the end. And whoever Frieza had document these missions was kind enough to install a progress indicator that showed whether the mission was complete or not. They found many, and Goten had been surprised to see Earth on that list of uncompleted. It was nerve wracking to think that all it would take is one inquisitive grunt early on and the entire universe would be completely different from what they knew. It would probably have been destroyed with Majin Buu running around rampant since nobody would've been able to stop him.

They simply downloaded the data and went galavanting around the galaxy, checking off planets and names as they went. Five went up to six, then up to seven. They kept recruiting until to the point they are now at with a current number of thirty-seven.

"I'm thinking that we will leave in a couple of hours. There is something I have to do first." Gohan replied. At their age it didn't matter who was older, Gohan was only a little over five percent older than Trunks. Trunks referred to Gohan though out of respect, Gohan had established superiority when he had knocked sense into Tatsoi and then powered up. While Trunks knew that if he fused with Goten they would be able to defeat Gohan, but by himself he would have no chance. Thus leadership was defined by power and everything that came with it, knowledge, and experience.

"Whatcha gotta do, if you don't mind me asking of course," Trunks said, looking over at Gohan as he did so.

Gohan turned to Trunks and looked at him. Then past him a moment later. As Trunks looked at him confusedly then started to open his mouth to talk, Gohan spoke.

"We brought Shenron back and found out about my father. Shenron allowed us to have Dragonballs as long as we saw to their purification personally," Gohan said, reaching up and starting to take his shirt off. "Shenron decided that due to my family's connection to the four star ball, that I would carry it. In my chest." With his shirt off and his chest exposed to the air, Gohan showed his friend Shenron's gift.

Trunks's eyes widened and he stared slack-jawed at the ball in his friend's chest. Slowly the gears in his head turned and Trunks noticed a hole in Gohan's story. The last time he had seen the Dragonballs was also the last time he had seen Shenron, when Goku had left after destroying Omega Shenron. He had left with the others long before any of them had realized that the Dragonballs had returned. None of them knew that Gohan only found the four star ball because it had hit him on the top of the head when he was meditating at Piccolo's old waterfall. That was about ten years after Oxri had died and Pan had left. Gohan had immediately recognized it for what it was and had given it to Majuub for safe keeping. The pain had been too raw for him to look at it, he had never known that Majuub had gone to his childhood home and placed it in his mother's room until Majuub had told him about the plan to bring Shenron back.

"How is your dad doing?" Trunks asked, "Is everything okay?" As soon as the words left his mouth Trunks immediately knew that that wasn't the case.

"He was absorbed into the Dragonballs; his body couldn't handle their power. I don't think any mortal vessel will ever be able to. Shenron thought I would be able to handle one ball though. And thanks to it I now know everything that my father ever knew." Gohan looked down at the ground. Nobody knew that Gohan felt wrong about using his father's memories. It felt as if he had stolen his father's identity, down to the very last detail. He pressed on though, and told the truth. "It has made training much easier to be honest."

Trunks was speechless. Of all the outcomes for Goku to go out with, being absorbed by the Dragonballs was so low it wasn't even on the list. Everyone had always assumed that Goku would go out with a galaxy sized bang of them all, with maybe the exception of his own father, but to go out with a whimper seemed almost insulting. The next immediate thing that popped into his mind was that Goten and Pan would be devastated when they found out. Everyone had been looking forward to seeing him in the afterlife and finally being able to spend quality family time and now it seemed that it wouldn't come to fruition.

"And how do you feel about that?" Trunks asked tentatively.

Gohan looked over at his friend before drawing in a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Gohan had long buried this particular ghost, but to have Trunks here and experiencing the pain with him once more exhumed this issue.

"It sucks. My father who we all thought to be indestructible is gone forever and we will never see him again. It's even worse for my mother. She had been looking so forward to seeing him again in Otherworld and now she will never get the chance. All she has of him are memories, and I this rock in the middle of my chest."

Gohan walked over and peered down the edge of the Lookout. It was a sheer drop to the ground with nothing in between the platform and the ground. And even though they were far up into the upper atmosphere and countless layers of clouds lay in between Gohan could see everything on the ground in perfect detail. The small indian village was still there, Korin now lived alone and still produced the magical Senzu beans. The forest wasn't as big as it used to be as urbanization took Gohan looked closely enough he could see where the forest's edge used to be and he was slightly disappointed to see that it was miles from where it now was. Capsule houses lay haphazardly across the plains and farmland out beyond the forest. Humanity was once again growing, and it was only a matter of time before Korin's tower became more than a myth to the world at large. Gohan smirked, the tribe would have to get a good lawyer in order to keep people off their lands and to protect the tower from tourists and would-be scientists. Seeing his world from up high shot a thrill through his body just like it always did with two sources. One from his heart, the other from the Dragonball in his chest.

"A part of him lives on though. Periodically I will feel a whisper of emotion not my own. An echo of what could and should be. My father still lives on in the Dragonballs, fractured. I feel that if one were to ever fully absorb the Dragonballs then my father could be free, but that day is a long ways away."

"I can think of no one better to do so than you Gohan. You have done so much for this world and the universe. If anyone deserves to have their father come back, it is you."

Gohan smiled, "Thanks Trunks, that means a lot. Who knows, maybe one day I will get strong enough to do so. But I don't think I will live that long."

Seeing Trunks start to open his mouth to protest Gohan raised a hand and interrupted him.

"We both know that what you want me to do is a longshot at best. Vegeta has had all these years to train and is a Super Saiyan Four. I've only reached the third level. I'm not seeing a way to win this without some casualties. I am probably going to be one of those casualties."

Trunks's punch completely caught Gohan off guard. It was a light punch, any harder and some environmental damage might have occurred, but it was hard enough to get Gohan's attention. Staring at Trunks at shock, he was astonished to see a look of fury on the man's face.

"I never would have thought that you of all people would act like this Gohan. You're giving up without a fight. You haven't even seen the planet or fought any of those saiyans for fucks sake! Nobody is dying, not on my watch."

And with that, the prince of an almost extinct race turned and walked away, the first hybrid of said species looking at and past him as he went. Gohan already had a contingency plan in place and was about to tell Trunks of his plan. Too bad Trunks had gotten mad, otherwise the man probably would've said the plan was brilliant.

_Oh well, I guess it'll just be a surprise then. _Gohan thought to himself as he turned around. Homing in on Dende's ki signature, Gohan let his legs carry him to his destination as he thought over the exact wording he would need to use. Sensing Tatsoi was in the room in between Dende and himself, Gohan started to vibrate his body at super high speeds. Phasing through the wall that separated the two rooms, Gohan kept going and phased through the second wall. Tatsoi never even noticed him as she lay stretched out on the bed, blankly staring up at the ceiling. She wouldn't have seen him anyway, Gohan made sure that he was going too fast for her to see him even if she was looking directly at him.

Spotting Dende looking down at a pot of water, Gohan walked over and stood next to him. Looking over to his left, Gohan noticed a dais with several golden spheres on it, Dragonballs. Gohan looked over Dende's right shoulder down into the pot and saw the world beneath them changing at a rapid rate. Dende stared down into the pot, his gaze never wavering until a pillar of golden light caught both attendee's attentions. Zooming down to the lights base, Gohan saw that it belonged to a Dragonball. Movement caught his eye and Gohan saw that it was Dende. The namekian had lifted a hand and was reaching down into the water, towards the lone Dragonball. Dende deftly scooped it up and drew it back out of the water. Gohan's eyebrows rose up in surprise, each day that he lived up here was a day full of new surprises and discoveries. Gohan rarely saw Dende use his guardian gifts for anything other than weather control and small nudges at the consciousness of troubled emotional people. To see him take control of the entire planet in such a way was awe inspiring.

"And that makes the last of them, Gohan would you be so kind as to remove the ball in your chest so we can get to work." Dende said as he straightened up and looked at Gohan.

Gohan nodded and dug his hand into the folds of clothing to his skin. Gohan lightly pushed against it and it sunk deeper into his chest before tapping against his spine and bouncing back out, passing in and out of his sternum like it wasn't there. The four star ball was only moveable when surrounded by the other six Dragonballs, otherwise probing fingers just glanced off it unable to get a grip.

Setting it down next to others, Dende and Gohan looked at eachother then nodded. Dende tapped his staff against the floor twice before the world spun around them and they left the Lookout, the Dragonballs with them.

xXx

"So when did Goten's brother say we were leaving?" Tatsoi asked Trunks. Trunks was currently pacing back and forth on the tiles in front of their ship, obviously impatient and eager to get the show on the road.

"He said in a couple of hours... a couple of hours ago," Trunks replied.

"Ugh, I was hoping he wouldn't be like Goten. That man can never give you a straight answer."

"Gohan isn't like Goten, Goten is like Gohan," Trunks said and laughed. It was good to laugh, pretty soon he was sure that they wouldn't be laughing for a while.

"What difference does it make, they are both insanely powerful. Any other things are just annoyances."

"You don't seem to put a lot of stock into having fun, do you Tatsoi?" Trunks said as he looked over at the woman.

"Having _fun_ is pointless. The only thing that matters is strength. Nothing else matters."

"So you're saying I don't matter is that it?" Trunks questioned. He knew that she was fractured. She had proven that countless times on the ship and arriving on Earth. Most of the dents in the ship weren't just from enemies or wayward debris. She would throw temper tantrums over the smallest things, and her anger would boil over at the slightest inconvenience. One time when she had put her foot through the floor he had been worried that she might puncture the hull and decompress the whole ship in the cold vacuum of space.

"No you do matter, you're strong and you saved my life. I swore a blood oath to serve and protect you and I intend to keep that promise."

"So because I'm strong I matter? So a baby doesn't matter? All babies are weak by our standards so they don't matter."

"I couldn't care less about babies Trunks!" Tatsoi practically screamed at him.

Trunks wisely shut up. He was playing with fire and he knew it. He may have been many times stronger than her but she was still a woman, and thus dangerous. His mother and sister had proven that the many times they had manipulated or threatened himself or his father in order for them to get their way.

Luckily fate intervened and both Dende and Gohan suddenly appeared in front of them. Gohan was sweating and breathing heavily while Dende was fine. Dende's staff tapped against the floor as he walked up to Trunks and spoke.

"I apologize for the inconvenience but I'm afraid that you won't be able to leave just yet. Piccolo has just contacted me and there is an urgent matter that Gohan needs to see to. I need to take Gohan to King Yemma's check in station. Hopefully it won't take much longer."

"Why not send Majuub? That way Gohan would be free and we can just leave now." Trunks said. To be frank he was slightly annoyed, he desperately wanted to go and start the mission to rescue his father and they kept running into delays. It was high time that something went his way for once.

"Can't. Piccolo explicitly said that Gohan was needed. I have no more information than that, I'm sorry."

"This is stupid, your friend is dead. Gohan is alive, we need him and the dead don't. It's that simple green man, I suggest you listen to me," Tatsoi threatened.

Dende merely glanced at her, as he did so his eyes glowed for a second and Tatsoi immediately slumped down to the ground, asleep. Trunks looked at both her and Dende in surprise before he started laughing. He bent over double and clutched at his stomach as his laughter increased in intensity.

"I can't believe that you of all people would do that Dende! Oh my god that is so funny, the peaceful guardian taking down the big bad saiyan in a flash. Oh Goten isn't going to believe this! Go on Gohan, I'm sure it'll be over soon. Kinda gotta wait for her to wake up anyway now."

"Good to see that you understand Trunks. We'll leave now." Dende said as he walked over to Gohan and reached up to touch the shoulder not covered by his mantle.

Gohan waved goodbye at Trunks as they disappeared from sight, Dende's magic taking them to Otherworld.

xXx

King Yemma was busy stamping death certificates on his desk when Dende and Gohan arrived in front of him, with Dende off to the side of the ever present line of dead and Gohan directly on top of three spirits. Luckily the spiritual clouds compressed easily and floated out from under the soles of his shoes, squeaking in anger. Hearing the commotion, King Yemma looked down and was surprised to see Gohan at the forefront of the line. Not noticing the lack of a halo, Yemma opened up a drawer on his desk and brought out Gohan's file. Opening it up to the tabbed section, Yemma skimmed over the events of his life until he got to the fight with Buu.

"Hmm lets see here. Says here you died several hundred years ago for the first time when Buu blew up the planet you were on. Brought back and lived through the Dragonball fiasco and the Akira virus. And it says that your status is currently living with one and two sevenths of a soul. Okay I'll say it, you're officially worse than your father was, at least when he dropped in unannounced he wouldn't be carrying extra baggage. So why are you here?" Yemma asked the two terrans.

"Piccolo contacted me and said there was a situation in Hell that required Gohan's help. He wouldn't give me any information other than that. That is why we are here sir." Dende said with the utmost respect.

"There is nothing going on in Hell, if there was I would know about it." King Yemma retorted with.

Right at that moment an aide came running in from a door on the left and called urgently up to Yemma. "Sir! There is a situation in Hell. The saiyans are going crazy down there, we've heard reports of there being a plan for them to try and break out. It is bad sir."

King Yemma turned and looked directly at Gohan, seeing the man's confusion he yelled at him, "Well what are you waiting for? A written invitation? Go down there now and sort this out!"

"Um yes sir right away sir!" Gohan stammered out as he followed the aide to the left hallway and down a series of stairs. They entered a room which was cut in half, on one half of the room was them, the other, a sheer drop. The aide prodded Gohan in the back and gestured to the chasm in front of them.

"There's the entrance to Hell. Now go down there and we'll send someone down to check up on you in a couple of hours. If you don't make it we'll see you in the main room. Bye!" And with that the aide promptly turned tail and fled, leaving Gohan alone and staring literally down into the bowels of Hell. Looking around to see if anyone was near, Gohan shrugged his shoulders and jumped.

xXx

"So any idea when he's gonna show up?" Nappa asked his long haired partner. Raditz shrugged to show his indifference, when his nephew showed up was his business. He was only here because Kodai needed to talk to him. And since Raditz and Nappa were the only sane saiyans that Gohan had encountered in his life, they were the ones picked to be the welcoming party. Turles was another option but since he didn't associate with the other saiyans he wasn't an option. To be honest, Raditz was afraid of how his nephew would react at seeing him. The last time they had seen each other was when he had kidnapped the boy at the age of four, not exactly the best first impression to make on family. Also it was widely known that it was Gohan who had been the one to kill Cell, who was a terror all by himself, at the ripe tender age of eleven.

"You think he would be here by now, didn't your father tell the namekian to contact him?"

"Yes Nappa he did. I still don't see why we needed the namek's help. We would've been able to send out a message just fine by ourselves." Raditz retorted. Ever since his death Raditz had held a strong contempt for all namekians. Luckily for the nameks, there were very few that made it to Hell.

"Yeah but I'm not too fond of the idea of selling my soul to one of those wizards. Those little bugs give me the creeps." Nappa shivered, after his service with Frieza the idea of servitude to another was revolting.

"Oh quit your bellyaching, I think I see him up above."

"Are you sure its him? Or is it just another bird?" Nappa asked. He already knew the answer though. This was a game the two of them had come up with to pass time decades ago. It worked when they worked for Frieza, and it worked for them in Hell. And sides, it was _so_ much fun to mess with Raditz. After all, what exactly is there to do in Hell?

"For the last time Nappa, there aren't any birds down here. There are no animals either. It's him trust me." Raditz knew the game Nappa was playing, and he wouldn't fall for it. Both of them were veterans of this form of killing time and Raditz knew a bait when he saw it. He'd play it out for now, and when Nappa dropped his guard, then the fun would start.

"If you say so, I think its funny how we were both much stronger than him and yet he survived fighting us both. And now he's so old, much older than I was when I died."

"Nappa."

"Yeah Raditz?"

"Shut up."

"And what if I don't want to?"

"Then I'll shut you up personally."

To the observer it would seem that these two saiyans were ready to engage in an all out battle to the death as they both glared at each other. Raditz looking slightly up and Nappa looking slightly down. This actually wasn't a rare occurrence and all the time, with the two comrades in arms often breaking down into a good old slug fest. It was a good way to blow off steam and it got both of them stronger. Both were much closer to each other in death than they had in life, without the constant overbearing posturing of Frieza's goons they were able to relax and become friends.

The sound of someone landing distracted Nappa enough that Raditz took the opportunity to plant his fist into the giant's stomach. Completely caught off guard Nappa bent over and sunk down to his knees, clutching his stomach the entire time. As Nappa went down, Raditz turned to the newcomer and spoke.

"Welcome to Hell nephew."

**Hell eh? *shivers* ****Leave us a review and let us know what you think!**


	4. Family Reunion

_This chapter is brought to you by Alpha Shenron_

...

Family Reunion

…

The last time Gohan had died he was resurrected so quickly that he only had enough time to see Yemma stamp his record before he was returned back to the realm of the living. But now for once he was able to see part of Otherworld beyond Earth's check-in-station. Granted it was Hell but that was still better than nothing.

As he descended from the giant crack in the sky, Gohan looked around. He could see the giant Blood Fountain that his father had told him about several miles to his left. Spires of iron spikes formed a large mountain range that stretched out across the landscape as far as the eye could see. The soil appeared to be a dark red and while at first he thought it was because of a high iron content; Gohan soon realized with his keen eyesight that it was stained with dried blood. Surprisingly the sky was a pleasant pink color with the yellow clouds of Snake Way high above. Gohan was so busy looking at the scenery that he failed to see the two very familiar people directly underneath him.

Gohan slowed his descent and softly touched down on the red ground. Wind whistled by him and carried with it a whisper of screams and moans. Gohan shivered, everything about this place was meant to break a man down, no wonder it was the ultimate punishment for some. To his left Gohan suddenly heard a soft exhalation and the crunch of grating rocks as something heavy went down. Turning to look at the noise, Gohan was shocked to see two people he thought he would never see again. His uncle Raditz and the saiyan warrior Nappa. As he turned he saw Raditz lift his head and look at him.

"Welcome to Hell nephew." These were the first words out of Raditz's mouth and Gohan realized with a pang that these were the first words that this family member had ever said to him in a calm voice, everything else had been screamed or yelled at him.

"You are probably wondering why you are here, am I right?" Raditz asked.

Gohan watched the two saiyans warily before speaking, "Not really, everyone else was pretty clear on the reason."

Raditz scoffed, "They only know what we wanted them to know, the truth is that someone very important wants to see you." Crossing his muscular and tan arms he added, "News of your little trip has spread nephew and some people want it to succeed. Myself among them."

Now it was Gohan's turn to scoff, "And I'm supposed to believe that now of all times you decide to care about your family. It is thanks to you that my sleep is still plagued by nightmares centuries after you died."

Gohan was glad to see that Raditz at least had the good grace to avert his eyes, in shame or embarrassment Gohan couldn't tell.

"When Father found out about that he was... quick to re-educate me on family etiquette. I won't apologize for what I've done, what's done is done and I'm glad that at least in some way what I did helped kill Frieza."

At this point Nappa decided to stand up. As the giant slowly got to his feet, rubbing the sore spot on his stomach, he looked over at Gohan.

"Hey kid good ta see ya."

Gohan and Raditz both just stared at him, silent. Anger started to flood Gohan's mind, being fueled by two different perceptions, but before Gohan could speak Raditz turned and smacked him across the back of the head. "Nappa last time you saw him you tried to kill him, how can you possibly think that it is good to see him?"

"Ow!" Nappa rubbed the back of his head. "So? That doesn't mean I'm not glad to see him I liked the kid."

"You almost smeared the bottom of your boot with his brains."

"Oh yeah... oops." Nappa turned away from his comrade and to Gohan.

"Sooo how ya been little man?" He asked, stretching out his shoulders as he did so.

Gohan gritted his teeth, "I've been fine thank you very much," he spat, "its not like you didn't kill several of my friends."

Nappa's eyebrows shot up and he turned down to Raditz who was shaking his head.

"Yo, I don't think he likes me."

"Why King Vegeta ever made you the General of our army I will never know. Of course he doesn't like you, he probably won't like anyone he meets down here."

"Both of you shut up. Now you said something about people wanting my mission to succeed. What do you mean?" Gohan interrupted. The two warriors looked at each other then back at Gohan.

"Kodai wants to talk to you." Nappa said.

Gohan frowned, "You keep saying that like it should matter, but as far as I know it means nothing. Would one of you just tell me who Kodai is?"

Raditz lifted up into the air and as he did so his tail lashed out and slapped the back of Nappa's head. Annoyed Nappa immediately followed.

"Well nephew, if you want to find out who Kodai is then follow us. Who knows you just might learn something."

And with that Raditz and Nappa took off, the backlash from their takeoff carving out a large trench in the bloody sand. Gohan stood back, mildly impressed even as his cloak whipped back from the winds. If their speed was anything to judge by, then the two warriors had gotten exponentially stronger than they had been in life. Gohan smirked, he was going to enjoy this.

In a rush of ki, Gohan's aura exploded out from his body and he took off after the two. The air parted before him leaving bright contrail lines behind him. Within a second he had covered the miles that separated him from Raditz and Nappa and in the next he passed them. The wake from his passage sent them bowling over head over heels, Raditz cursing while Nappa sputtered.

"How can I follow when you're so slow?" Gohan shouted out behind him. Ordinarily his voice never would have reached the two but he amplified his vocal cords with ki so they could hear him. Gohan's smugness soon turned to surprise as in a brilliant flash of golden light Raditz transformed into a Super Saiyan and grabbed Nappa. Before the bulky saiyan could protest, Raditz rapidly accelerated to Gohan then past him, latching onto him in the process.

"You would have made an excellent saiyan nephew, just watch that mouth of yours. It can get you killed." And with that Raditz accelerated even further and they went into the depths of Hell, and Gohan went further than any other living mortal had ever gone.

xXx

Bardock took a deep breath as he walked through the stone corridor. The smooth walls and floors of the corridor betrayed its construction. If Bardock reached out and touched the walls he could still feel a small flicker of ki, evidence to the power of the blast that melted the stone. He could detect the rapidly approaching energy levels of his son and Nappa, and Gohan with them. That was a good thing as Kodai was starting to get impatient and that was never a good thing. When things didn't go as planned Kodai could get violent.

A loud boom echoed through the air and dust fell from the ceiling landing in Bardock's hair. Frowning, Bardock shook it out. Broly was likely the cause of the disturbance, the man beating his father Paragas up in the makeshift dungeon. When everyone heard of Broly's death there was much rejoicing, the first Legendary Super Saiyan in over a thousand years and everyone dreamed of fighting him. Bardock could remember how disappointed everyone was to learn that Broly suffered extreme mental damage and was insane. He could also remember how jealous everyone was when Broly attacked Bardock and only Bardock.

Broly had screamed out his son's name and launched himself at Bardock, knocking over every saiyan between the two of them. Broly then proceeded to utterly beat the shit out of Bardock and every other saiyan who tried to to help Bardock. Even his Super Saiyan abilities were no match for the saiyan of legend. It had taken Kodai's intervention to stop Broly, the ancient saiyan defeating the berserker with one blow. Granted he was a Super Saiyan when he did it but it was still a very impressive feat. Kodai had bent down and pried open one of Broly's eyes and was alarmed to see that they were completely bloodshot. He held up a hand to the side of Broly's head and his hand pulsed with ki. Two more pulses and Kodai cursed.

"His brain is damaged. That explains his insanity." Kodai stood up and surveyed the bloody saiyans. "Where is his family? They might be the only ones who can calm him down." One raised his hand, the former advisor to King Vegeta, Zorn.

"His father is Paragas, his mother is someone named Annya. Never really knew her."

Kodai grunted, "Anyone know where we can find either one of them?"

One of Bardock's old crew members Shugesh spoke, his jowls bouncing as he did, "I saw Paragas a couple of days ago by the mountains, he said something about hunting down some of Frieza's old men."

Kodai stood up and looked over towards the mountain range then in a blur of motion appeared with a bloodstained Paragas. The first class saiyan looked around confused before noticing everyone around him. Everyone was still rattled over the revelation that Broly had brain damage to notice how Paragas trembled when he saw his son on the ground. Everyone that is but Bardock. Kodai had had his back turned to the man though, and was kneeling next to Broly. Placing a hand on Broly's chest to stabilize him, Kodai extended the index finger of his right hand and placed it just under Broly's nostrils. Firing a small amount of ki out of a finger into a man's nostrils works very well when trying to wake them up.

Broly woke up immediately, crinkling his nose as the ki burned inside. The man sneezed quite violently, the action causing tremors through his body as it tried to force his upper body off the ground. Kodai quickly formed a ball of ki and held it in front of Broly's eyes, hoping to relax him. It worked; everyone could easily see the tension leave Broly's body as he focused on the warm ball of light. Still Kodai kept a firm hold on his shoulder, even as he spoke softly.

"Easy there whelp, everything is going to be alright. Focus on your father."

In his trance like state Broly obeyed, the instance he laid eyes on his father though all the rage that had been built up exploded. Broly's surging aura knocked back everyone except for Kodai and carved a hole into the ground. Everyone stared in shock at the thrashing saiyan as he bucked, kicked, flailed, and snapped at Kodai in his attempt to get free. Finally locking his gaze onto Paragas, Broly screamed, "I'll kill you!"

And as one, every single saiyan turned their heads and looked at Paragas. The saiyan's eye was darting back and forth among those assembled nervously. Kodai glared at him, "What did you do?"

"No-no-nothing Sir he's always been like that Sir." Paragas stammered out.

This piqued Bardock's interest; in his experience whenever a saiyan started throwing "sirs" out that meant they were either guilty of something, or they were kissing major ass and wanted something. In this case Bardock had a feeling that it was the former. Stepping behind Paragas he placed a hand on his head. Immediately his mind was besieged with sounds and images. Digging through Paragas' memories, he searched for any indication of what caused Broly to act this way. Finally he arrived at the point where Broly first truly became insane and what he saw shook the mass murderer to his core.

"What the hell are you doing?" Paragas had started turning around as soon as Bardock had touched his head but by then it was too late.

"I was reading your mind. Something you have experience with I see." Paragas' face paled, since Bardock was a Super Saiyan and he wasn't Kodai was sure to take his word over his own. However Paragas was something that Bardock wasn't, a talented manipulator. Bardock looked at Kodai who was eyeing them both with interest, and a little distrust at Paragas.

"He used a special torque that allowed him to control Broly's power. In order to do so it fed Broly's own energy into his brain which caused the brain damage."

Paragas scoffed, "It seems that stupidity runs in your family Bardock if you think something as stupid as you being able to read minds is going to convince anybody."

Bardock simply tapped the side of his head near his temple and smirked.

"You also seem to forget that I'm psychic. I've learned a lot of things by watching my son's future, like how to read minds."

Paragas thought that his advantage was cemented with such a ridiculous claim as being psychic, but as all the saiyans started murmuring among themselves and Kodai fixed a glare on Paragas, he started having second thoughts. Broly's thrashing around still trying to get to him wasn't helping him at all either. Right when he was about to denounce Bardock's claim a saiyan stepped forth. Unfortunately for Paragas it was Toma, Bardock's best friend and longtime comrade. Toma's death at the hands of Dodoria hurt Bardock enough that he had taken the bloodsoaked bandana off of Toma's arm and put it on. Bardock also then went on a massive killing spree of Frieza's soldiers culminating on a frontal assault on the tyrant himself. Now that they were dead however Toma had his original headband back and Bardock no longer had the bandana wrapped around his head. The funny thing is that when you die your spiritual form is how you envision yourself, however if you get resurrected it is your physical form that gets resurrected in its original unblemished state.

"I've never liked Paragas and if Bardock says he caused his son's insanity then I see no reason to doubt him." Toma said, causing Paragas to sneer.

"Oh yes what a surprise, the second in command of Bardock's old crew is supporting him. Too bad your support is in favor of a liar."

Paragas' damage control didn't work at all and he realized this as more saiyans stepped forth. Zorn, Nappa, Seripa, Gerkin, and Hatonek each voiced their support of Bardock. After they voiced their opinions Kodai stood up, dragging the struggling Broly up with him.

"Paragas, I know for a fact that Bardock is psychic so stop trying to get out of this. You've committed one of the most terrible crimes a saiyan could ever commit. You took the free will of your own son, your own flesh and blood, and in the process stripped him of his sanity. If you were alive I would kill you right now, but seeing as we aren't I'm left with few options." Kodai said.

"Why not lock the two of them up in a room and let Broly work his issues out with some nice physical therapy? 'Sides if he kills Paragas we can just wait for him at the Well of Souls and bring him back." Gerkin said, his offer meeting much approval with the assembled saiyans.

Kodai nodded, "Yes that does seem to be a good idea. Seize him."

Two saiyans stepped forth and grabbed Paragas by the arms. Kodai kept his grip on Broly and walked down into the tunnels that the saiyans had carved out millenia ago, followed by the struggling Paragas and his guards.

Bardock was knocked out of memory lane when the door in front of him opened up without warning. He had been unaware that he had been where he needed to be for several minutes. Kodai stepped out, his tail stretched out lazily behind him and said, "Yes Bardock?"

"I just wanted to let you know that my grandson is in Hell and my son and Nappa are bringing him in." Bardock answered.

Kodai smiled and then laughed, "I think you're a little late Bardock, look behind you."

"Huh?" Bardock turned around and nearly slapped himself in the face at what he saw.

"Hello Father, getting soft in your old age I see." Raditz said. Gohan, Nappa, and Raditz were all behind him and Raditz was still a Super Saiyan. Bardock cursed himself mentally, his son's power level alone should have alerted him to their arrival but he had been so caught up in his memories that he never noticed.

"Shut it boy I can still clobber you anytime of the year."

Nappa peaked over Raditz's charged mane of hair and cleared his throat, "Um, aren't we here for something important?" he asked.

Kodai nodded, "Yes you are right Nappa. Now, boy if you would please come with me I need to talk to you."

Gohan crossed his arms, "My name is Gohan. And talk to me about what?"

A perplexed look crossed Kodai's face, "Gohan? Eh, who am I to question your mother's choice of names. I need to talk to you about the saiyan's you are going to go fight in your spaceship. I have some information on them that you'll need."

"Fine, make it quick though we plan on leaving soon." Gohan said.

"Thats fine with me, now follow me." Kodai walked through the open door and into the room with Gohan on his tail. Once inside Gohan noticed that the room was very spartan, only a couple of stone stools and a table. Gray was the dominant color with some supporting blood reds. As Kodai sat down on the far side of the table Gohan examined him. Kodai was a very short saiyan, a couple of inches shorter than Vegeta actually. His hair was black of course like all pure blooded saiyans and one large piece arching down over his face down to his nose, the rest curved upwards in a large fan-like shape. Scars littered his exposed flesh and there was a large one stretched out across the bridge of his nose. Kodai wore what looked like a fur skin from some large mammal and it was wrapped around his waist like a kilt. All in all Kodai looked to be a very brutish warrior from an era long past.

"Okay so you said you had some information for me?" Gohan asked as he sat down on the stone stool and bent forward, resting his arms on his knees.

"Yes, but first I'm going to have to educate you on where they come from. A thousand years ago on the saiyan homeworld I knew them. I grew up with one of them, a man by the name of Cicuta. He was always a bit of a sadist but I'll tell you about that later. I knew them for about one hundred and thirty two years before the planet blew up. . Well on the planet our culture had a system of laws. Kin was everything and under no circumstances were we to intentionally harm our kin outside of training. Because of this those that have achieved the form of what you call 'Super Saiyan' were not allowed outside when the full moon was out. Well one time that rule wasn't followed and what happened was the destruction of the planet." Kodai said.

Normally Gohan would've been excited to learn more about a culture and this small very concise telling of the ancient saiyan homeworld was very interesting. Unfortunately it didn't explain anything that Gohan needed.

"While this is fascinating and all it doesn't help me at all," the living saiyan said, "so if you would be so kind as to get to the point I would greatly appreciate it."

Kodai shook his head and sighed, "Straight to the point I see, well alright then."

"One day I was outside when the moon was out, I had already achieved the 'Super Saiyan' state years ago so what happened next I'm sure you can figure out. I transformed into a great gold Oozaru and was unable to control it. My power went out of control and I destroyed the planet. Fortunately many years prior to that some aliens had landed on our planet for some reason or another and died, the gravity crushing them. We knew what the ships were for, but at the time we had no interest in leaving, until I transformed. All those who were fit and able got onto the ships and somehow managed to get them to work. One group left a couple of minutes before the planet exploded, on that ship was a man named Vegeta. Moments before my death I managed to gain control and ascended, some of those leaving on the last ship saw it happen. On that ship was a man named Cicuta, he is one of the men that you need to worry about when you land on planet Quindflear. He has accessed the fourth form in the time since. The other person you are going to have to look out for is named Manchineel. He was a child when I last saw him, but the thing about him is his uniqueness. He is a Legendary Super Saiyan."

To say Gohan was surprised would be an understatement. He was sitting in front of the very first Super Saiyan Four, and the person to blow up the original saiyan homeworld. Now the man only had one question.

"So are those two the only two I have to watch out for when we leave?" Gohan asked Kodai.

"Probably not, but those two are likely to be the strongest ones. From what I've heard out of those who have died on that planet Cicuta has the most powerful saiyans under his thumb. Cicuta is the strongest saiyan on that planet no doubt. If I were you I would not fight him nor Manchineel."

"Okay thanks, but I probably won't have to fight anyone anyway, I can just teleport in and grab Vegeta then get out. Easiest way to avoid trouble."

Kodai perked up and laughed. "Oh that sounds great, so really this whole trip was for nothing then?"

Gohan leaned back on his stool and shrugged, "Yeah pretty much, still now we know not to go in and try and start a fight."

"Well thats good to know. Say, is this Vegeta fellow royalty or something?"

"Yes, he was next in line before Frieza blew planet Vegeta up."

Kodai smiled, "So Vegeta did have kids after all. At least that worked out for him."

"Yeah, and he's also reached the fourth level."

Kodai looked at Gohan in shock, his mouth hanging open. Closing it he muttered, "It seems that everyone is able to get to that damn form without blowing up their planets."

Gohan laughed and without any of the rooms former tension, the two started talking and getting to know each other.

xXx

"How could you lose him! He's just one man with two broken arms!" Cicuta screamed at an unfortunate subordinate. Sand billowed around them in the harsh greater desert of Quindflear. They were on the banks of the only river in the desert, it was located only a couple of miles from the cave system that Cicuta used for powerful prisoners. During the wet season the river's distance from bank to bank could stretch out to the size of a small lake, but the river had been known to dry up completely during the dry season.

Right now it was the dry season and today was one of the rare times the river was dry. Patches of mud here and there littered the river bottom and the bones of animals long gone could be seen, bleached white by the sun. In the middle of the river bed lay a large crater filled with water. The ashes drifting through the air gave flavor to the air and everyone present could easily recognize the charred scent of one of the recon units.

The young man flinched at Cicuta's harsh tone. He had just been promoted to Sergeant and it was only his second assignment, and considering the way Cicuta was acting, it might just be his last. It took all of his willpower to keep his tail wrapped firmly around his waist and to prevent it from literally sliding between his legs and shaking. He took a deep breath to steady himself and opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't know Sir, we tracked his scent and sent a squad ahead after him. By the time everyone else was ready to leave we heard the explosion and the weaklings were dead."

Being put on a reconnaissance squad was considered an insult among the saiyans of Quindflear. Only weaklings were placed on them and recruits didn't last long. Normally used for scouting out the outlying villages and routing out dissenters, they were always the first targets. The amount of surviving squad members was always a good indication of how strong or how many people a target had. Cannon fodder had its uses, unfortunately just not against a Super Saiyan.

Trembling with rage Cicuta paced around, each step sending a fountain of sand spraying, he struggled to contain his anger. He wanted to just unleash his anger, no, he needed to release it. The last time he had gotten this mad he ended up breaking through the second Super Saiyan barrier. Everything had gone wrong; with another Super Saiyan Four on his side Cicuta could've bred an army of super warriors and taken to the stars. Looking around at the people near him, Cicuta's tail bristled. He could feel the bloodlust surging through his veins. Each muscle was contracting, if he had the skeletal structure of a human the contractions would've snapped the bones like tried tinder. Luckily for everyone some idiot decided to volunteer himself by questioning Cicuta.

"Excuse me Sir, why do we need this prisoner? If he was such a problem wouldn't it have been easier to just kill him?"

Cicuta's tail snapped through the air like a whip, the crack of it silencing everything but the wind. Cicuta stared down the impetuous whelp, a young man, barely in his sixties. Regabuta was his name if Cicuta could remember correctly. It didn't matter anymore of course, striding towards the boy Cicuta's blood sang. Everything was moving in slow motion to the ancient saiyan, he saw the boy's eyes slowly start to widen in fear as realization dawned in them. He saw the roots of his hair slowly turn gold, the color spreading slowly millimeter by millimeter. An aura appeared as Regabuta's muscles flexed almost imperceptibly to the eye. Cicuta's right hand reached out and almost gently grabbed onto the soldier's throat. He stopped being gentle. Clenching his hand like a vice, Cicuta's gaze literally bore into Regabuta's. Twin beams of ki shot out of Cicuta's eyes and into his. Regabuta only had time to scream once before his brain was completely vaporized. Regabuta's corpse dropped to the ground, steam pouring out of the holes where his eyes used to be.

Feeling much better, Cicuta looked around at his men and said, "Continue searching, I'm going to go find some wench to fuck," and flew up into the air sending sand flying everywhere.

The Sergeant released a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and looked down at the body. Marveling at Cicuta's power and control he noticed that there wasn't even an exit wound, it had all been contained within his skull. With no remorse for the man who had just been killed, he bent down and grabbed his right leg. Spinning around he threw him out towards the river, into the crater. Smirking a little at the size of the splash his throw had caused, he turned and barked out his orders to his remaining men. Little did everyone know that as Regabuta's body drifted down to the bottom of the crater, it conveniently covered up the tunnel leading down into the earth.

...

_Note: The credit for the name Annya should be given to Demonic Host as it is essentially her character._


	5. Angry Whispers

Angry Whispers

Ice littered the ground around a large vacuum-like machine. In front of the main nozzle were two statuettes, both former terrors of the universe but now nothing more than glorified ice sculptures. Periodically the ice would shake as either of the two occupants tried to free themselves from their prison. Up above them on a small outlook a lone watcher stood on guard against both the two below him and any escape attempts from the other denizens of Hell. Several hundred years ago a large breakout had occurred in this exact spot and because of that previous breach that area of Hell was vulnerable to a similar event happening. A namekian hovered on the outlook, silently meditating and keeping a steady lock on the ki signature of his old pupil. Piccolo wanted nothing more than to go out and see Gohan again but he didn't dare leave his post for if he did others were sure to come and try and escape, and if not escape then to free the two beings frozen below. Piccolo could feel them lurking at the edge of his senses, intangible spirits so long deceased that their bodies had faded away leaving only malice and hate behind. These were the beings that cultures throughout the universe referred to as ghosts or such other supernatural phenomena and Piccolo had seen what happened when one of these spirits inhabited a lesser being.

One of Yemma's ogres had been down here right after Goku had left so long ago, cleaning up the dishes left by the ever hungry saiyan. Piccolo had just finished beating down one of Babidi's minions when the shade had struck. With a scream and a puff of purple smoke the ogre had been transformed into a small obese childlike demon. The real danger wasn't its power level but in its ability to control the reality around it to a certain extent. Thankfully its range had only been a couple of meters but it was still enough to alarm Piccolo and cause him to take swift action against the creature, it had taken only one strike to finish it off. Unfortunately though Piccolo hadn't won as he had thought and the creature deformed in on itself creating a stronger more fighting efficient form. Gone was the small pudgy creature with holes running down its torso, its small horns and tail had grown in size and looked fully formed. The holes in its chest had completely disappeared and its happy disposition was gone, replaced by a muscular sadistic demon. However strength was relative, Piccolo estimated its strength was only around what he himself had peaked at when training for Vegeta and Nappa's arrival. An almost tenfold increase from what the ogre's original power had been. The creature's talent for breaking its own body apart had irritated Piccolo at first until he'd finally gotten fed up with it and vaporized it instantly. Thankfully the ogre had been left unharmed and only the shade had been destroyed, but it was a warning to Piccolo to not let any of the shades through. He shuddered to think of what might happen if multiple shades ended up inhabiting the same body. The effects of its reality manipulation alone could spell disaster for both the living and the dead, let alone the power it would wield.

And so Piccolo stayed by the weakened dimensional wall, standing guard until the end of time with nothing but his thoughts and fusees to keep him company.

Shifting rock and the sound of displaced air were the only physical indication of company but Piccolo already knew who had arrived before the noise had even reached his sensitive ears. The vast warm ocean of ki he sensed could only belong to one person. Straightening his feet out to touch the ground Piccolo stood to his full height and turned around, what he saw made him smile.

"Hey kid. It's nice to see you again," Piccolo said, "you look good."

Gohan laughed, "I thought you'd say that considering it's almost exactly the same as what you wear. Its been too long Piccolo."

"It sure has. So Vegeta got captured and you're going to go and free him huh? At least you have a plan, from what I've sensed these saiyans are no pushovers." Piccolo said, smiling as he took in his pupil's attire. The only thing that was different than his own was the strange pole strapped on his back and the lack of a turban. Piccolo didn't recall ever seeing it himself but memories from both Kami and his father came forth, informing him of the pole known only as the 'Power Pole.'

One of Gohan's eyebrows rose; it always amazed Piccolo that he could do that, all he could ever do was raise both of his own hairless brows. "How did you know that Piccolo?" Gohan asked.

Piccolo gestured to his ears, "These are for more than decoration Gohan, I can hear almost anything in the universe if I concentrate hard enough. One of the perks of being a Super Namek from what Nail's memories tell me."

Gohan laughed again, "Oh yeah I remember, you used to hate it whenever I whistled. But yeah from what Kodai told me these guys sound tough. I'm in no hurry to fight one of them, but I'll admit I'm interested to see just how strong they are."

Frowning Piccolo said, "Gohan don't let your father's influence cloud your judgement, Goku was a fighting genius but his love of battle put him in a couple of sticky situations. Remember that." Gohan opened his mouth but Piccolo cut him off. "And before you ask I think I can remember what your ki signature feels like. It's a combination of yours and Goku's, yours is dominant but I can feel whispers of his ki intertwined with yours."

"Oh, I didn't think it was that obvious."

"Only to those who look Gohan, I can read you like a book, always have been." Piccolo said, "So you've been training, have you reached the fourth level yet?"

Gohan shook his head, "No I haven't. Majuub isn't strong enough to stop me if I rage out of control and I don't want to accidentally destroy a planet. So, going to outer space is out of the question. But I'm plenty strong without it. I could take out most of the dragons single handedly. Only Omega Shenron would be stronger than me." Gohan said before smirking, "And you? Have you gotten stronger Piccolo?"

Piccolo returned Gohan's smirk with one of his own. Reaching up to his head he removed the heavy turban, his antenna springing up with the action, and then shrugged out of the mantle before dropping the two items.

"Why don't you tell me." Springing forward, Piccolo shot twin beams of ki out from his eyes. Powering up immediately after, Piccolo watched in what seemed to be slow motion as a surprised Gohan dodged the low powered attack. Glad to see that his student's reflexes were much sharper than they used to be, Piccolo brought his right fist back and drove it into Gohan's stomach. He felt resistance only for a moment before the momentum transferred and Gohan was sent flying backwards, spittle flying from his mouth. Gohan crashed into one of the nearby needle spires and brought it down crashing on top of him. Piccolo stood waiting, senses on the alert for the slightest shift in the air or Gohan's ki.

Piccolo didn't have to wait for long, a sharp increase and an intense flash of golden light was the signal that the fight was heating up. Gohan's ki dipped up and down and Piccolo could hear Gohan's ragged breaths and his heart beating faster and faster. A deep rumbling permeated the air at a frequency much lower than any human could hear and it took Piccolo a moment to realize that Gohan was growling. Either Gohan had changed in the many years he had been dead or Gohan was feeling Hell's effect. Another flash of gold broke Piccolo out of his musings and launched Gohan towards the namekian.

Seeing the wild look in Gohan's face as he neared confirmed the second option and Piccolo shook his head, with Gohan's anger issues this could definitely prove to be a problem later. The instant before Gohan reached his location Piccolo gathered his ki into his legs and with a mighty jump launched himself upwards into the sky, collecting ki into his throat the entire time. Gohan quickly adjusted and followed his master up into the sky, snarling all the while. Piccolo soon reached the apex of his jump and flipped forward, narrowly avoiding being speared by Gohan's outstretched arms. Now directly below Gohan, Piccolo opened his mouth and unleashed all the ki that he had collected. The energy came bursting out of his mouth in a single bullet the size of a large cannon ball, but packing infinitely more energy and speed. It struck Gohan and carried him up higher into the air towards the top of the cavern.

"This ends now!" Gohan yelled out and burst into the next level of Super Saiyan. His strength now surpassing Piccolo's, Gohan was easily able to stop his upward momentum and grabbed the ki ball straining against his stomach. Bringing his arm back Gohan threw it back down towards Piccolo who merely watched as his attack came speeding down at him. Straightening his left arm straight up, Piccolo merely waited for his attack to reach him. On contact with the dead namekian's skin, the ki was reabsorbed into Piccolo's body.

'Kami, Hell is messing with his mind much more than I thought. You were right that it wouldn't be wise to try and spar with him. Any ideas on how to end this before it gets even further out of hand?' Piccolo thought inwardly. Thankfully the mind of the old namekian was active today and he quickly received a response.

'Two of my dragonballs are embedded in his chest and synchronized with his soul. If you get close enough and touch them I can paralyze his ki using the dragonballs as a bridge. You need full contact with both for it to work though.' The old wizened voice of Kami replied.

"Oh I can get you close old man, just do your part." Piccolo said out loud as his ears picked up the deep rumbling from Gohan once more. The situation was spiralling out of control quickly and Piccolo might not get another chance to fix Gohan. And that chance was coming quickly as Gohan rapidly accelerated down to Piccolo, his mouth open in an O shape. If Piccolo had given any thought to Gohan's expression it definitely became known as an extremely high pitched noise filled the air. Gohan was doing something he had never done in Piccolo's presence since the evil namekian Slug had come to Earth, he was whistling.

'You abandoned me Piccolo. You had the chance to come with us when the Earth blew up but you turned it down. I have never forgiven you for that, and now you will pay with your afterlife.' Gohan said telepathically, still whistling. Piccolo's energy was dropping fast, the pain was too much for him to keep a steady grip on his power. Piccolo more felt than saw Gohan's landing in front of him, his vision a swarm of black dots that threatened to transcend into unconsciousness.

"You've forgotten something Gohan," Piccolo groaned out.

'And what would that be Piccolo?' Gohan mentally asked.

With a mixture smirk and snarl, Piccolo reached up to his head and ripped his ears off. Silencing his own scream of pain, he took some pleasure in the look of shock on Gohan's face before lunging forward and placing his hands on Gohan's chest, right where the dragonballs were located.

"I do what needs to be done!" he shouted. Faster than anyone could react, Piccolo felt a strange wave of energy flowing through his arms and into the dragonballs, and through them, Gohan's soul. The effect was instantaneous, Gohan's aura disappeared and his gold hair turned back to black. Gohan's attitude also changed as with a start he immediately backed away from Piccolo and started shaking all over. Kami's influence had severed the link to his ki temporarily and purified him simultaneously of Hell's damning effects. With the threat to his ears gone now, Piccolo quickly regenerated his ears just in time to hear Gohan's apology.

"I... I wanted to kill you Piccolo. I'm so sorry it just came over me." Gohan took a deep breath trying to steady himself but the minute he looked at Piccolo again he lost his composure and shook.

"It isn't your fault Gohan, Hell has that effect on people. It gets inside their heads and brings out the worst in them. It invents reasons for doing things, the Black Water Mist is a concentrated form of this effect. And we both remember what happened when Garlic unleashed that on the Earth," said Piccolo. "The key is to not let it control you."

"So how do I keep it under control then, everyone I've met seems to be fine, even you and you're not even supposed to be here!" Gohan asked, terrified of losing control again.

Piccolo walked over and placed a green hand on Gohan's shoulder, "Kid, I meditate everyday for hours. I've lived with my father's influence for years and resisted it. You are stronger than this, just don't fight or get angry. It makes it easier for it to seep in."

Gohan looked up at the taller namekian and nodded, "Thanks Piccolo, I'm sorry for what almost happened."

Piccolo gave his shoulder a squeeze, "It's fine kid. Nice to see you finally using that head of yours by the way. Against any other Namekian that would've worked."

"I'm not proud of that move Piccolo. I did it to get an easy kill." said Gohan.

"Even if you hadn't done that I wouldn't have lasted much longer against you. I've gotten stronger but not strong enough."

"Well I'm just amazed that you got as strong as you did Piccolo! You're strong enough to have given Majin Buu a run for his money."

"And you would have destroyed him with ease, don't try and coddle me with reassuring words. I know my limits and I'm proud of my strength. I can take care of most of the cretins down here."

"And do I qualify as a cretin, slug?" A voice rang out laced with scorn. Only Gohan jumped, with his connection to his ki severed all of his reflexes were dulled. And in Hell without protection that was as good as signing a death sentence.

"Hello again Raditz, are you back to try and fight me again?" Piccolo asked the hovering saiyan while crossing his arms, having sensed the man's approach he was not in the least surprised to see him.

"Not today green bean. I'm here for my nephew, but don't worry, your time will come. And when it does I will grind your skull underneath my boot and crush it like the insect you are." Raditz's tail lashed out behind him. Not many people could look the person who killed them in the face and not do something about it. Raditz had shown up here many times in an attempt to defeat Piccolo and prove that he was the stronger, so far it was all for naught.

Gohan looked up at his uncle and frowned, just when he thought of his uncle as something other than a complete monster he went around and did something like this.

"What do you want with me Raditz?" Gohan asked abruptly.

"Some of us want to say goodbye before you go off to rescue our beloved prince, so Nappa and I decided to throw a party in your honor. Green bean you're not invited, you get to stay here guarding your little hole and think like you always do."

Piccolo shifted his gaze over to Gohan but said nothing. Without access to his ki Gohan would be in trouble no matter where he went and Piccolo wasn't sure if he could trust Gohan's family to keep him safe. But then Gohan's ki flared into existence and was slowly but steadily climbing. It was small and Piccolo wasn't even sure that Gohan had noticed its return, but his body did. Piccolo could hear the muscles in Gohan's arms tightening and expanding, the rush of returning ki infusing each and every fiber. Gohan's heart pumped more energetically in response and so Gohan's skin darkened slightly as the blood flowed through his skin.

"What kind of party?" Gohan asked. In all the time he had known Vegeta the man had never been good at parties or any type of social gathering. If this was his chance of learning more about saiyan parties and thus saiyan culture he would take it. And considering how long it would take for him to die if he ever did, now was the perfect chance to satisfy his curiosity.

"One with plenty of fighting and good cheer! For what other kind of party is there in Hell?" Raditz exclaimed with a loud laugh.

"What do you think Picco- what the hell!" Gohan jerked back as one of the shades flitting around on the outskirts came soaring in directly towards him. The spirit had obviously chosen him as a suitable host and decided to try and bumrush Gohan while they were talking. Piccolo and Raditz lunged forward in an attempt to intercept it but it passed Raditz before he could reach it and flowed over Piccolo's chop like water. Piccolo's blood chilled and he screamed as he saw the shade get past Gohan's backhand and fly directly into his mouth.

"No Gohan!" Piccolo cried out as Gohan's body started to convulse as the shade and Gohan's conscious mind fought for dominance. Gohan's skin would bubble and inflate before returning back to normal as the spirit permeated Gohan's flesh, the skin steaming from the constant metamorphosing. It was inevitable that it would reach the dragonballs, and when it did it was spectacular. Gold radiant light surged out into the surrounding landscape from Gohan's chest and a loud wail issued from Gohan's mouth. The scream rose higher and higher in pitch until finally it was too high for even Piccolo's sensitive ears to hear. His mouth open wide, Gohan clutched at his head as his aura picked up in a massive flare up. White smoke came pouring out of Gohan's mouth in the same shape and consistency of the former shade and flew off. Piccolo watched the spirit carefully and was amazed when it passed through the cloud barrier and up into Heaven. His immense struggle over, Gohan pitched over and fell into the sweet soothing embrace of sleep.

"Okay that's it, I'm taking the boy and we are going to the party before any more of those... things show up." Raditz stuttered out. He wasn't stupid and he wasn't a coward; he knew why Piccolo stood guard here, but he had always doubted the validity of Piccolo's experience with the shades. After all when a tall green man tells you about possessive ghosts while he is grinding his foot into your back you don't believe them. Until now that is, with there no longer being any doubt he made a mental note to remember to tell his father about this. Hopefully his father would listen and several saiyans would be sent to help Piccolo in his vigil.

"Amazing." Was all Piccolo had to say, for an instant he was fearing for Gohan's very life, but then the impossible had happened. With a direct conduit to Gohan's soul the shade had tried to infiltrate it, but instead of it corrupting Gohan the reverse had happened. Having never before encountered a purely good spirit before it had been absolutely overwhelmed by Gohan's very being. Scrubbed cleaner than any of the essence cleaners that Yemma had in his employ the shade had gone from the purest evil to the purest good instantly, and with that change came access to heaven.

Seeing that Gohan was now incapable of flying Raditz walked over and gently hoisted his nephew up. Ignoring Piccolo, Raditz took to the skies to bring the guest of honor to his party.

"Ugh, that was a cheap shot," Nappa groaned after taking a moment to catch his breath. Raditz's punch caught him off-guard, and he was paying for it. Raditz had knocked the wind from his lungs, and it took Nappa a moment to breathe before he could begin complaining.

Gohan watched the scene unfold with a sense of discomfort and unease. It turned out that a saiyan party involved mostly fighting and drinking, and without access to any alcohol that left only the fighting. Thus a tournament was held, one that neither Gohan nor Kodai could participate in, and the fights had progressively gotten longer and more spectacular as the weaker fighters lost. To add to Gohan's discomfort was all the cheering saiyans. When saiyans fight or get excited it turns out they end up releasing massive amounts of pheromones, the more fighting there is, the more pheromones. The smell was getting to Gohan and his blood was pumping, try as he might he couldn't fight the urge to want to fight. Piccolo's warning soon was forgotten as he focused on the fight, breathing in deeply as he did.

Raditz almost sighed as his face scrunched up and he turned away from Gohan with a face that read 'give me a moment.' As soon as he squared up to Nappa, he immediately kicked his old friend in the face, and Nappa fell backward onto his back. "It wasn't a cheap shot," Raditz began as he walked over to Nappa's side while the bald man held his face now instead of his gut, "you just weren't paying attention." Raditz then stomped on Nappa's chest, leaving his foot on his comrade's abdomen. "You're pathetic."

Gohan already felt apprehensive around Raditz and Nappa, and with Raditz's display of cruelty something in him snapped. He suddenly felt small, like he was a child again, crying out for his father after Raditz had forcibly separated them. His fists clenched and Gohan heard what sounded like crashing waves in his ears. Piccolo's warning vanished, the crowd of saiyans vanished, all he could hear was the sound of his father crying out in pain.

"Nephew?" Raditz said with a curious look as he turned his gaze to Gohan. Pieces of rock floated up into the air around him as his energy began to spike and flicker wildly. Raditz had learned to sense ki since taking up residence in Hell, so he didn't need a scouter to know that his nephew was having a meltdown. He stepped away from Nappa and slowly took three steps toward Gohan. "Gohan—" Raditz began but was cut off.

Gohan said nothing as he planted his fist into Raditz's gut. The air rushed from his uncle's lungs, and Raditz could only stare at Gohan in shock. Gohan stared at his uncle with wild eyes before unleashing a barrage of punches. Raditz, still dazed from what was happening, took a few dozen hits to the body and face before he could blink. Realizing from both Gohan's dull gaze and his wildly erratic ki that reasoning with his nephew would be useless, Raditz decided to fight back. He dodged a left handed punch from Gohan and flew backward away from him. He had time to train over the last two centuries in Hell, and he'd made significant progress in his abilities. Raditz smirked to himself; this would certainly be interesting.

Before Raditz had a chance to launch a counterattack, Nappa collided with Gohan, his head slamming into Gohan's head. Gohan reeled and appeared disoriented for a moment, but he quickly recovered and went after Nappa. Gohan began with a hard knee to Nappa's gut, hitting him in the same spot that Raditz had just punched him in only moments earlier. The demi-saiyan followed up by grabbing the sides of Nappa's head in his hands, then slamming it down into his right knee. Even Raditz cringed watching that hit. Nappa's nose immediately started to bleed and his eyes watered in reaction to the broken nose he now owned.

Gohan quickly charged a ki blast in his right hand and fired on Nappa. Luckily for the dead saiyan warrior, Gohan hardly put anything into his attack. Nappa was hit but not dead; smoke rose from burns to his forearms and chest as he fell away and skidded across the broken rocky terrain. Raditz took the opportunity to step in again when Nappa was knocked away. He rushed at Gohan, throwing a flurry of punches, only for Gohan to block them all. Despite his clearly altered state of mind, he was still in control of a large enough portion of his power to put Raditz to shame.

Raditz stopped his attack and pushed away from Gohan. He quickly charged a ki blast in both hands and fired at his nephew, who promptly disappeared. With a moment to breathe, Raditz summoned up his power to push things to another level. He smirked to himself before he let out a scream, and with it a golden aura enveloped him. His eyes faded to a teal color as his hair shined that same gold as the ki that swirled around him. He'd become the legendary Super Saiyan while in Hell. He knew that his brother and nephew were masters of this form and others beyond it, but his chest still swelled with pride at his own accomplishment.

Gohan seemed just as dazed as ever when he appeared before Raditz and slammed his left palm up into his uncle's chin. Gohan then proceeded to throw punches at Raditz, aiming for whatever he could reach. Raditz took most of the hits, but was able to dodge several and block a few others. It definitely confirmed that Gohan wasn't in his right mind, because his moves were sloppy and he stuttered to an unknown staccato beat. His nephew's movement reminded Raditz of a serving bot who was malfunctioning, although the serving bot wouldn't be able to kick his ass. Lost in his thoughts Raditz didn't move fast enough to dodge Gohan's next strike, a fierce axe kick. The foot slammed down on top of Raditz's head and the maned saiyan saw stars. Sloppy yes, but also powerful.

Blinking away the tears Raditz allowed gravity to drag him down closer to the howling crowd. Out of all the assembled saiyans only Bardock thought anything was wrong, but it wasn't his fight so he watched and waited. The rest of the spectators cheered, more than happy to see a good, bloody fight. Raditz looked up at Gohan to see that his nephew floated in the air momentarily, as if he were thinking about something. Gohan's head fell back slightly, his mouth slightly agape as his dazed eyes gazed up. There was nothing to see there, but even from this distance Raditz could tell Gohan wasn't quite home at the moment. He knew his nephew was far more powerful than he was, but damnit the kid started it and he wasn't about to quit on a fight. Especially with the roar of his fellow Saiyans on his ears, egging him on. No, Raditz had far too much pride and bloodlust to give up now.

Gohan thought he heard words in the back of his head. Words that sounded familiar and comforting, but when he tried to focus on them, the more muddled they became. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or what was going on, until he felt a weird twinge in his chest. It started near his heart and shot through his limbs. It was like an electric shock that knocked the fog out of his head. Without thinking, he raised his right hand and caught something in it. When he focused his eyes on what was in front of him, he found that he had caught his uncle Raditz's left fist. He suddenly remembered that he was fighting his uncle, lost in some kind of terrible cloudy rage. Piccolo's words came back to him about the effects of Hell, and Gohan knew he needed to end this now. He couldn't keep fighting and risk losing himself again.

Gohan pulled his uncle toward him and shoved his knee as hard as he could in his current state into Raditz's chest. The older saiyan convulsed like his body was lit with electricity. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and the golden aura faded from his black hair. Gohan let his uncle's body fall to the ground since they weren't too high above it at this point. Some of the onlookers cheered while others booed; the crowd was glad to see a good fight but disappointed it was over, especially so quickly. Gohan let out a heavy breath; he needed to get out of Hell, and soon. Otherwise he'd end up spending eternity beating these other Saiyans senseless.


	6. Captain's Orders

**This Chapter is brought to you by AlphaShenron**

_Ship: The Arc._

_Ship Status: Active._

_Crew Status: One hundred and twenty-six active life signs._

_Captain's Log: Entry 5461._

_Trunks just left with Tatsoi. He told me he was going back to Earth to find Gohan and get help. I think that it is just a ploy for some alone time with Tatsoi; we all know that he got the hots for her the instant he saw her dirty beautiful face. It will take them three months to get to Earth the long way. I have a feeling that they won't take the long way. Knowing Trunks he will use the old hyperdrive engine. I told him that it is several hundred years old and hasn't gotten so much as an oil change, but he refused to listen. I hope he gets back soon, I don't know how long Vegeta will be able to last down there alone. He's been with them for a week already and the longer we wait, the worse he gets. Sativa is already tense and he feels we should do something; the poor guy doesn't understand that they could all snap us like teeny weeny sticks. I'm thinking of teaching the gang fusion, but that power just might go to their heads. On an unrelated note, Pan has been getting pretty chummy with Vigna. It seems that the stress of what happened to Vegeta has dropped several barriers. Vigna has had his eye on Pan for almost a quarter of a century, but she kept dancing out of his courting—but now its changed. It seems extremely cliche that only after everything goes to hell does Pan finally yield; or I could be wrong and Vegeta's timing could just be complete horseshit and raining on Pan's parade. It's nice to see her start to test the waters again, but I hope she doesn't get hurt again. I liked Edgar, but after at least three lifetimes she needs to be happy again. I just hope that when Gohan gets here he's fine with it. Vigna's a nice guy. Acting-Captain signing off._

* * *

_Ship: The Arc._

_Ship Status: Active._

_Crew Status: One hundred and twenty-six active life signs._

_Captain's Log: Entry 5462._

_Bra is really taking it hard. It's only been eight days since Vegeta got captured and she has put half of the guys into a healing tank. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if she turned into a Super Saiyan. It's at times like these that the resemblance to her mother is remarkable; if she did end up transforming, at least we would know what Bulma would look like if she was a Saiyan! I wonder if I could take a photo and manipulate it to look like Bulma? I'm not sure if Vegeta would like it or if he would rip my arm off for somehow disrespecting her—I'm thinking its the second option, but hey, a guy can dream can't he? Anyway, Giru started acting up, kept spouting out "Danger. Danger," over and over again. Finally, Pan got fed up with it and smacked him down into the ground; it seems that some things never change. I think he got a bit mad at her cause when she took a hot shower the water went cold instantly halfway through it. I could hear her scream all the way from the captain's chair. I found out why he kept saying danger though: the main pipe for the water heater was busted. The look on Pan's face was priceless, definitely worth the cost of the pipe bursting. I guess that means for plumbing we will just have to heat up the water ourselves—I hope Bra doesn't break a nail. We all know how fragile Daddy's Little Princess can be; she'll pound you into the ground, then immediately turn around and complain about split ends. Acting Captain signing off._

* * *

_Ship: The Arc._

_Ship Status: Active._

_Crew Status: One hundred and twenty-six active life signs._

_Captain's Log: Entry 5463_

_How many Saiyans does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Just one incredibly angry one. Pan and Bra got into it today. Who would've thought that only a month without Vegeta and the whole ship descends into chaos? The two girls got into a major argument in the mess hall. Bra wants to get everyone and rescue Vegeta while Pan wants to wait until Trunks brings back Gohan. Naturally the two got into one major catfight and of course it was Bra who lost her cool first and threw the first punch. The shockwave blew out the overhead lights and Bra freaked out when the glass got into her hair. Nobody spoke as she rushed out of the room; thankfully we have a couple of spare light bulbs and we were able to fix the light. Pan makes a pretty good flashlight when she's Super Saiyan. I let her change the lightbulb while I observed several of the others go after Bra. Of course all of them were guys, unclaimed guys to be more specific. It didn't take a genius that they were all hoping to get in her pants. "Oh, let me rub your back Princess Bra while we all tell you how right you were and that Pan is stupid." I don't know whether to laugh at their stupidity or to worry that it might work. If Vegeta comes back and finds out Bra got pregnant, I won't be able to evacuate the ship fast enough. And I don't even want to think what Trunks would think! Acting Captain signing off._

* * *

_Ship: The Arc._

_Ship Status: Active._

_Crew Status: One hundred and twenty-three active life signs._

_Captain's Log: Entry 5464_

_I am going to kill Sativa! He ran off with Po'K and Borago down to Quindflear's surface. We are now down three pods, which means instead of just one on the surface there are now four. I seriously hope their idiocy doesn't come back to bite us in the ass. If it does, I will put them in the regeneration tanks so many times it'll be their home away from home! Acting Captain signing off._

* * *

That was three days ago. It has been two months since Vegeta has been captured. Time is running out.

* * *

Up, down, left, right. Each supersonic movement created air pressures that would've bulged out the walls of any normal vessel. Fortunately for the inhabitants, The Arc wasn't your normal spaceship. Externally it was considered a relic of an ancient time when the galaxy was more or less united under the tyrannical grip of Frieza. The interior of The Arc was actually state of the art, even more so really due to the constant tweaking of the genius duo of Trunks and Arc had actually belonged to Frieza himself, filled with information of saiyans. Vegeta had decided that it would be deliciously ironic if one of the most iconic visuals of the old Cold Empire became the foundation for the reconstruction of the scattered Saiyan race. Thus The Arc came into being. When the first child was born on the ship, everyone saw a side of Vegeta that few had ever seen. He had openly wept; it was at that moment he fully realized his role as the new King of the Saiyan race.

The walls of the training room sunk inwards before bulging out like a spring. Goten raised one hand up to his mouth and yawned, his hand hiding his smile from his opponent, which caused her to growl. Pan laughed on the sidelines at the sight; it was nice to see Goten toy with someone other than her. As much as she hated to admit it, Goten was still leagues above her even though they had both reached the second level. For her the trigger had been tragically easy —for both ascensions. Edgar's death had stolen something from her and for the first time in her life she felt the true pain of loss. And then Oxri's death was the other trigger. Both times her father had held her as she wept in his arms. The first transformation had proven to all that she possessed the ability, and while others would later congratulate her on her success, only her father knew the true price. He was the only one who had actually felt the pain needed for her ascension. Everyone else had a different trigger. Vegeta's had been the feeling of inadequacy he felt when he believed he should have been the best and the realization caused him to snap. Goten and Trunks had it the easiest, Goten had transformed sparring against his mother from sheer annoyance. Trunks' occurred when Goten had broken one of his toys when they were out playing in the woods. Only her father and grandfather had needed the pain of loss for any of their ascensions. It seems that it followed the trend that the firstborns of the Son family would need loss to ascend.

Goten's opponent was a young thing, only eighty years old. She possessed enough power to make the likes of Frieza and Cooler tremble in fear and she wasn't even a Super Saiyan, but even with all of her power she was unable to land a single hit on Goten. The funny thing was that while Goten kept his power significantly higher than hers while dodging, it would drop rapidly when he went in for the strike. It created the illusion that the gap between them was much smaller since most of the time she could just shrug off the hits, but the instant she tried to turn it around and strike back he moved so fast that it took all of her concentration to even see him!

Pan thought that it wasn't very sporting of Goten to toy with her like this, but she could understand. After what Sativa had done, everyone on the ship was on edge. Some of them thought that the three might succeed and bring their King back, but Goten and Pan knew the truth. The three would go in guns blazing and would either wind up captured as well or dead. So Pan let her uncle let off steam and stood off to the side and thats when it happened. The synthetic voice of Giru spoke over the ship's intercom system.

"Attention, Giru Giru, three pods docked in Hangar Bay Two. Life signs do not match those of Sativa, Po'K, and Borago. Extreme danger, danger, Giru Giru!"

"Shit! I knew those idiots would get us all killed!" Everyone turned and looked at Goten. The man was shaking, either from fear or anger nobody could tell. Pan figured it was a healthy mixture of both; she knew that Trunks and Goten had only barely made it off of the planet alive and that any Saiyans from Quindflear were extremely dangerous.

Running up to her uncle, Pan asked him the question on everyone's minds.

"What should we do Uncle Goten?"

Muffled talking carried through the room as the other occupants talked among themselves. The scent of fear started to spread through the room and even Pan's duller senses could pick it up —every man woman and child was scared. Everyone was focused on Goten; everyone was counting on him.

Taking a deep breath, Goten tried to calm his nerves. He desperately hoped that the people who had come back in the pods were weaklings and he stretched his senses out to Hangar Bay Two to find out. He extended past the warm signatures of his friends and family and probed outwards finding, one, two, three, and finally four signatures in or near the hanger. There was both good and bad news: the good news was that two of the foreign signatures were much weaker than himself and he could handle them no problem. The bad news was that the third one belonged to the monstrous Legendary Super Saiyan who had been the first to challenge Vegeta. Even worse was that the first signature belonged to five year old Eruca, and he was the closest to the three.

Goten opened his eyes and turned to look at Pan with a serious look.

"Pan, I want you to lead everyone to the main control room. If you need to you can detach that part of the ship and get to safety. I'll contact you if I win, you'll know if I don't. Bye, love you Pan," Goten ordered. Sparing a moment to give her a sad look on his face, Goten sprinted to the door and down the corridor at top speed. He had to get to Eruca before the others could find the kid. His senses on alert, Goten felt Pan and the others make their way to the control room. Erupting into Super Saiyan, Goten put on a burst of speed and got to the hangar right as the door opened.

Getting an idea to end the fight immediately, Goten powered up a blast in his right hand and phased to the front of the doorway. Smiling at the look of surprise on the Legend's face, Goten promptly front kicked him through the doorway and fired the blast at the hangar bay doors. As the far walls buckled outwards into the vacuum of space, Goten waved one last time at the Legend before mashing the button to seal the door. Feeling the ki signatures of the two others vanish as their bodies most likely got turned inside out, Goten figured that it was only a matter of time before the Legend suffered the same fate. Seeing no reason to wait though, Goten turned to the end of the hallway that he hadn't come from in time to see Eruca come walking around the corner. Smiling, Goten turned to Eruca and took one step when suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Who could that be Mister Goten?" Eruca asked.

"A very bad man Eruca," said Goten, his face paling as he did. "Lets go, now!"

Goten dashed forward towards Eruca and scooped him up in one arm, right when the door crumpled and was ripped into the remains of Hangar Bay Two. Ducking low, an extremely large man stepped through the threshold, greenish yellow hair glowing. His thick mane of hair draped down both down his front and his back, the giant sasquatch-like man grinned at Goten before shaking like a dog, a ring of bones around his neck chiming. Where his thick green hair didn't cover the Legend wore the skins of large animals, fur and all.

"Surviving the emptiness of space, so easy a caveman could do it," Goten muttered under his breath. Unluckily for him the Legend heard him and frowned.

"I'll have you know I happen to have a very nice cave. I have several women to cook for me and serve me so it is very nice."

Goten scoffed and flipped him off, even if the Legend didn't know what the gesture meant he could tell it wasn't nice.

"I remember you boy, you ran away when Vegeta stayed. I kicked the shit out of him and it's going to be fun doing the same to you. Then we can just fly down and you can make warriors for us. It is very easy." The Legend's face brightened. "Its also very fun!"

Goten just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to say no to that Mr. Legendary Super Saiyan."

The Legend growled, "My name is Manchineel. I suggest remembering it."

"You're a meany," said Eruca from the safety of Goten's arms.

"Yes he is Eruca, now lets get going so I can kick his ass." On Earth it would be frowned upon to swear in the presence of a child so young, but Eruca was a Saiyan and saying the word ass was nothing compared to what his parents said.

"The boy dies," Manchineel said, and with that he took two leaping steps forward and leaped at Goten and Eruca. Transforming instantly into the second level of Super Saiyan, Goten slid under Manchineel's outstretched arms on his back and kicked upwards. Both feet struck him in the abdomen and turned Manchineel's controlled tackle into an uncoordinated mid-air tumble. A little flare of his energy and he was upright, smirking as he spun around in mid-air and watched Manchineel land on his back before the corridor turned away and they were off. Keeping his power steady Goten had to exert careful control over his aura lest it completely vaporize the floors walls and ceiling. Eruca giggled in his arms in what seemed to be slow motion; obviously the child was having fun and if Goten wasn't currently to busy running for their lives then he probably would've scolded the kid, maybe.

"Wheeee!" screamed out Eruca as he waved his arms in glee at how fast they were going.

Fortunately for Goten he only had to go through two doorways and he would be at the main control room and then he could drop the kid off and fight Manchineel for real. Hopefully this time it would go better than when he fought Broly all those years ago. This time he wouldn't have Gohan to swoop in and save him. Goten had lost track of all the times Gohan had saved the day back when he was growing up and now it was his turn to do the same. Maybe Eruca would look at him the same way he had looked up at Gohan, the way he _still _looked up to his brother.

An explosion erupted behind them and the flames came roaring in through the hallway even faster than Goten was moving. He had just dropped Manchineel not even half a second ago and the man was already up and ready enough to blast back. The speed at which the fireball was overtaking Goten was just another painful reminder and the huge amount of power Manchineel possessed. Hugging Eruca to his chest, Goten put on another burst of speed right as the flames seared his bottom raw. Not wanting to end up as a well-done steak of Goten, the half-saiyan fired a large beam of ki out of his feet and propelled himself even faster. Only to slam face first into the repulsive chest of Manchineel. Stepping back Goten retched and clawed at the grease that now stained his face and chest. That shit reeked!

"You done yet?" questioned the giant before him. Looking at where his face had impacted Manchineel's chest, Goten could see a greasy impression of his face in the animal pelt.

"You're disgusting. Have you ever taken a shower?" Goten coughed out.

Manchineel merely cocked his head to the side, puzzled.

"What's a shower?"

"Kamehameha!" Taken completely off guard, Manchineel had no time to prepare a defense against the one handed variant of Master Roshi's greatest technique. The wave of blue ki flowed forth from Goten's outstretched arm and completely obscured Manchineel from sight. As the ki died away, Goten was left with the sight of a completely unscathed Manchineel. Little did he know it, but the exact same situation had occurred long during the first fight against Broly.

Manchineel looked down at Goten, almost bored. Lifting up a hand to his mouth, he picked at his teeth with a blackened fingernail. Whether the nail was blackened from Goten's attack or from years of horrible hygiene Goten didn't know, nor did he want to know. Goten knew he was running out of options fast; he only had one arm available and by holding Eruca he would have to modify his stance and how he blocked in order to keep the child safe.

"Nice attack, but let me show you one better." Manchineel opened his mouth and bright ki glowed between the top and bottom rows of teeth. The sickly green color immediately brought up old memories and Goten's body reacted, even while his mind recoiled with fear. Jumping straight up, Goten placed his left hand on the top of Manchineel's head and as the Legend reared his head up and raised his arms to swat at Goten like an annoying fly, Goten brought up both knees and smashed them into the very bottom of Manchineel's jaw. With an audible click, Manchineel's jaw snapped shut rupturing the ki collected in his mouth. It exploded quite violently and it took all of Goten's considerable strength to keep Manchineel's mouth closed. Smoke poured out from Manchineel's nostrils and the giant Saiyan roared, the sound muffled but Goten could clearly tell that Manchineel was pissed. The vibration had gone up his arm and Eruca was shaking like a bobble head from it.

"Gotta fly," Goten mocked before flicking his wrist and flipping over Manchineel's head and kicked off of his back. Not a moment too soon either because that was when the fire decided to catch up and engulf the Legend. Searching ahead for Pan's energy signature Goten calculated the best route to get to her. Sensing her directly in front of him, Goten looked straight up and let out an undignified eep before slamming on the brakes. Resting a moment to let his heart rate get back into normal ranges, he noticed that she was fully powered up. Obviously she wanted to fight.

Smirking down at her uncle, she giggled when Eruca started yelling, "Again again!"

"No not again, I almost had a heart attack," Goten mumbled.

"Oh don't be such a baby Uncle Goten, now where is this intruder that has you running for the hills? I want a piece of him," Pan said, cracking her knuckles and giving off a couple of extra sparks from her aura.

Goten looked up at Pan, horror on his face. Standing back up he walked up to her and promptly dropped Eruca into her arms. Eruca frowned as he knew that this meant the ride with Goten was over.

"He's back there and _you _are going to go do what I told you to do and take Eruca with you," Goten said.

Pan shook her head.

"Goten, let me help you. With Trunks gone I'm the only one strong enough to fight on an even level," Pan pleaded.

"No I can't let you fight a guy like this. If you get hurt or worse, Gohan will kill me."

"And what if you get hurt because of something I could've helped with, if that happens then it won't matter what my father would do because we would all be dead!" Pan shouted.

Goten just watched as his niece huffed and puffed. Her face might have been calm, but her aura was proving otherwise. The normal calm of a mastered transformation was replaced with jagged fire, Pan's emotions bleeding out into her ki and just like with Gohan it was always a volatile mix. Power would rise and if it was too much, Pan's rational mind could very well go out the window. And that was never a good thing. There was one thing though that separated Pan's power boosts from Gohan's; Pan could get her power from trivial things. She got angry way too easily. Gohan had always required a real need, but Pan could break a nail and then proceed to blow shit up.

A deep voice made itself known from directly behind Goten. "You're both wrong, you'll all die anyway."

Goten couldn't help it, his spine turned to jelly and his whole body decided to shiver. If Goten had been seven again, he most likely would've wet himself, though unlike Trunks it wouldn't be done on the Legend's head. He felt Manchineel exhale from behind him, the passing air ruffling his hair. A split moment later and he smelled what Manchineel's breath was like. Needless to say that considering the man already had no sense of personal hygiene the ending result was absolutely putrid.

Pan's reaction was much less contained. The woman gasped and clutched Eruca closer to her chest. Luckily for the child, she was a woman so there was some cushioning. If it had been Goten it probably would've hurt a lot. Internally Goten couldn't help his betraying thoughts. Really sometimes Pan can talk the talk, but can't walk the walk.

'_Yeah, I figured that when you saw him your tough talk would go running for the hills.'_

A sad smile on his face, Goten looked Pan in the face.

"Pan. Run."

A maelstrom of ki engulfed Goten and he flipped upside down almost instantly and smashed both knee's into Manchineel's nose. At the same time Pan blasted off in the opposite direction. A loud crack was heard and the two warriors didn't move. If Pan had stayed she would have thought it was something out of a painting. It was Goten who broke the standstill first by flying back, still upside down, and reorienting himself to face Manchineel face to face. Goten's face was contorted in pain and he kept his right knee bent. The leg spasmed periodically and each one brought a new tic to Goten's face; the double knee smash to Manchineel's nose had resulted in the knee cap shattering.

Manchineel looked down at Goten's leg and then looked up at his face.

"That looks like it hurts."

The blunt statement drew a snarl from Goten. Right now he was fighting both a desperate need to run away, and a desperate need to protect everyone on his ship. One could blame either Saiyan biology or his upbringing, but Goten would buy the others as much time as he could. He had to lead Manchineel away from them so that if he were to fall they would have enough time to separate the ship and escape.

"No shit Sherlock," he snapped. "How would you feel if your knee shattered into itty bitty pieces?"

Manchineel shrugged, "I don't know, the last time I was seriously injured was so long ago I have no idea what I would do now. I'd probably go berserk and tear you limb from limb, but I wouldn't suggest it."

Then he frowned, a puzzled look on his face, that face so similar to Broly's that to Goten it looked as alien as clown makeup on Vegeta.

"Who is this Sherlock?"

"No one you need to concern yourself with; you're fighting me right now and that is exactly what we are going to do now, fight!"

Manchineel crossed his arms and scoffed, "Well to be honest it hasn't been much of a fight. You've just been running away and you've landed only three hits, the last of which crippled you. Like I said, not much of a fight."

All Goten had to reply to that was a grin, a creepy kind of grin that was a reflection of the side of him that came out in Gotenks.

"I'll show you a fight."

Goten's cheeks the bulged out. To Manchineel it looked like he was about to throw up and he automatically took three steps backwards, the safest distance to avoid getting vomit on his skins. Parting his lips into an 'O' shape, white smoke poured out. It just kept coming and coming that Manchineel started to think that Goten was going to keel over from lack of oxygen, not that he was running out of air any time soon. Saiyans could store a huge amount of oxygen in their muscles that they could stay underwater for an entire day. But if they were to get in a fight that time would diminish to a mere thirty minutes. Thats why it is practically impossible to strangle a Saiyan; they held more oxygen in their bodies than an entire house.

The white smoke had finally taken shape, forming into an exact copy of Goten minus the wounded leg. The reason for that was because it had no legs, just a single tail.

Manchineel openly gawked at the ghost-like apparition as it waved at him, smirking deviously. Goten's grin was full of confidence—unlike Buu this foe couldn't regenerate so any damage would be devastating. With a snap of his fingers the ghost faded from view, disappearing like its namesake. It was a new tweak to the powerful technique, one that allowed him to adjust the ghost to any size, even microscopic. With its mission in mind, the brave ghost kamikaze traveled the airways up into Manchineel's nose. Once it was situated in the man's disgusting sinuses, the ghost rapidly increased in size, until it touched the interior.

Manchineel's eyes crossed as he felt a tickle deep in his nose, his only warning before agonizing pain ripped through his face as an attack the likes of which nobody had ever encountered outside of Earth before detonated inside. Smoke poured out from his nostrils just like last time and this time Goten followed the attack up, not willing to risk failure as he jetted forward and smashed a haymaker directly into the spot where Manchineel's nose would be. Feeling the sharp definition of Manchineel's thick nose Goten inferred that the ghost hadn't blown Manchineel's face apart. Which would mean that Manchineel would be incredibly angry. Pulling his fist back, Goten noted with some degree of satisfaction that there was a smear of blood across his knuckles. Looks like he had done some damage after all.

A deep growl resonated out from the smoke screen and with a puff it was cleared. Manchineel was exposed and he was staring at Goten with what looked like pure bloodlust. There was nothing insane about it like Broly's stares; no this was methodical, animalistic even like an animal hunting. Goten was right in his assessment that the ghost had did some damage, blood poured from Manchineel's nose and ran down into the jungle of hair under his neck. Goten had seen some crazy hair styles among the Saiyans, but this was just plain ridiculous. He was absolutely covered in the stuff and if he wasn't careful he could easily rip some of it out.

"Its time for pain, runt. Lots of pain."

Manchineel lunged forward, his large frying pan sized hands stretched out to crush Goten's skull, but the half-saiyan was already moving. With a dot of ki on each fingertip, Goten rolled under Manchineel in the same maneuver that started their engagement and peppered Manchineel's body with a legion of blasts. Each was designed to pierce through so they weren't explosive, but they did leave tiny shallow cuts on parts of Manchineel's exposed skin. Goten had the kamikaze attack to thank for even this tiny effect on Manchineel; that internal attack had severely dropped the Legend's ki to a range that would allow Goten to fight more evenly. Of course Manchineel's power was still much greater than Goten's, but this way the demi saiyan had some scrap of a chance.

However, as Manchineel passed over Goten's body, right as Goten launched his swarm of attacks, the Legend had dropped his foot down into a kick. Right as the last attack hit Manchineel's abdomen, his foot connected with Goten's head. The force of the blow made Goten black out immediately and the man was sent skidding down the hallway, his body riding the curves like it was on wheels. Goten made it up to the ceiling on the exact opposite side of the circular ship before the artificial gravity dropped him down to the ground. His skin tight armor now covered in a thick black friction burn line, Goten was left undamaged from the wall surfing, but was still in his base state. Luckily for Goten he didn't suffer too much damage, with nothing to impact the energy passed through his body after the initial amount sent him moving.

Thankfully it was a very short black out and Goten was conscious before he had completely landed on the floor. His vision blurring, Goten did the only thing he could do to survive and ascended once more to the second level, only this time he went even further beyond. Goten had yet to discover the trigger to the third level by himself and Vegeta was adamant about everyone discovering the transformations by themselves; instead Goten went into modifying the second level similar to ways Vegeta and the future version of Trunks had done when fighting Cell. Goten knew about these forms from old stories his brother had told him when he was just a child; he asked Gohan if he could show him and to his disappointment Gohan didn't actually know how to do it. So it was up to Goten to experiment on his own and it turned out to be an almost pathetically easy for him to modify the first transformation. He easily discovered the bulked up forms that enhanced strength, speed, and ki then discovered that if he bulked up too much it was actually painful to move, granted when the muscles on your shoulders started to each higher than your head it was easy to figure out that you went too far.

Goten could feel Manchineel barreling towards him, following the curve of the huge outer hallway and decided that muscle would fit quite nicely; after this hit the bulked form would probably become a hindrance so he would revert to a different alternative. Forcing ki into each muscle fiber, Goten's body bulked up and the lightning storm in his aura increased in intensity. Thankfully the advanced armor possessed the expandable feature otherwise it would've been very restrictive, but Trunks was a brilliant technician and it worked just as well as he said it would. With his senses now further augmented, Goten could sense that Manchineel had covered only half the distance, yet he was no fool and he knew that if Manchineel was at his full power he would have never had the chance to power up. A wickedly devious idea popped into his mind, and Goten smiled that cheshire grin again. Raising up both arms to his face, Goten fanned out his hands so that the fingers were arrayed like the rays of a sunrise. Now to wait, and Manchineel did not disappoint.

Sprinting down the hallway the Legend came barreling down, he had actually decided to follow the skid marks of all things and so he was actually upside down by the time he entered Goten's vision. Manchineel roared as he saw Goten, the deep animal sound an instinctual challenge to opponents, the call to battle was singing in his blood and the urge to cut loose was overwhelming. For one split second after he roared and he took in Goten's now much larger frame, he wondered if Goten was the same as himself, a legendary? Ridding himself of that thought, Manchineel jumped down from the ceiling and clasping his fists together, moved to smash them down on Goten's head.

"Taiyoken!"

A bright light shot out from Goten's raised hands and seared Manchineel's eyes, roaring in pain for the second time since he arrived in this strange building, defenseless once again against Goten's assault.

Dashing forward Goten grabbed onto Manchineel's face with his left hand, digging his fingers into the flesh, while simultaneously bringing his right fist directly into the Legend's throat. Goten felt a slight give in the man's windpipe, but that was all. Letting go, Goten leaned back out of Manchineel's flailing arms as they attempted to trap him in a bearhug. The instant the two arms crossed each other, Goten leaned forward and smashed his forehead against Manchineel's. Not quite finished, Goten moved to trip the man, but as he planted his right foot on the ground and his weight was put on the limb the nerves in his knee decided to flare up and scream in agony. The sudden shock completely threw off Goten's plan and gave Manchineel time to recover. While the Legend couldn't quite see yet, he could at least make out shapes, which was bad for Goten considering he was the only one in the hallway. Collecting green ki into one open hand, Manchineel stepped forward and in the same motion pushed the orb into Goten's chest causing the ki to detonate and send the fighter flying backwards.

Throwing all of his ki against his momentum, Goten was able to stop before he reached the end of the hallway. Lifting slightly off of the ground, Goten made sure not to put any pressure on his damaged limb. Placing his hands on his chest, Goten hissed in pain, the special alloy that the armor was made out of was completely ruined. Parts of it were bubbled and in some areas had completely melted away leaving only the interior mesh lining. Seeing that Manchineel was hanging back, most likely waiting for his eyesight to fully return, Goten drew more ki into his throat for a ghost encore. Drawing his head back like he was going to spit, Goten brought it forward and shot out at high velocity millions of small ghosts. Each one was smaller than a finger yet they were each filled with the destructive explosives of the ghost kamikazes.

The ghosts cackled madly in a cacophony of tiny little demons as they rocketed towards their target. The first one struck Manchineel in the chest almost immediately and detonated creating a small spray of blood to splatter out and a smokescreen. With each impact more and more blood and smoke filled the air, each impact causing Manchineel to cry out in pain as his flesh was roasted. With each detonation, Manchineel's ki dropped while Goten's stayed strong and soon they would be equal. This continued for some time until Manchineel's ki stopped decreasing; even so Goten continued to fire more and more ghosts at the Legend. Then like a runaway freight train Manchineel came barrelling out of the smokescreen his whole body glowing green. Blood streaked down his flesh in rivers and his white eyes were narrowed down into slits. Rearing a fist back, Manchineel crossed the distance separating himself and Goten and smashed it into Goten's cheek. The change in angle caused the last few ghosts to explode against the flooring exposing humming circuitry. Grabbing Goten's face the same way he had done to himself, Manchineel then drove his fist into Goten's windpipe, instead this time the attack actually had an effect.

Dropping instantly out of the bulked up form, Goten was reduced to the first transformation and his energy dropped drastically. It took all of his training and concentration to keep himself from dropping out Super Saiyan completely and that would be the cause for saving his life. Lifting Goten up into the air by his face, Manchineel snarled before spinning around and smashing him down into the exposed machinery, breaking it apart and bringing Goten's body into contact with live wires. Goten's body contorted as the electricity coursed through it in amounts much higher than anything ever produced on Earth. Amounts of power that would have fried any normal Super Saiyan threatened to overwhelm him. Already his back was heating up to a point where the armor was melting; once that layer was gone there would be nothing protecting him and the full power of the ship would be flowing through him.

Not content to let the ship end his foe's life, even if Manchineel could only vaguely connect the humming wires to planetary lightning, he knew that it would severely hurt his opponent in his weakened state. Bringing his fists up, Manchineel proceeded to beat the literal shit out of Goten by aiming anywhere he saw flesh. The two pronged assault tested Goten to his absolute limit and beyond. Stubbornness was the one thing he had inherited the most from his father, even more so than his hairstyle. Goten held out for a full five seconds, which at the speeds that their brains were processing information it was an absolute eternity, and Goten may have been able to hold out even fifteen seconds if it weren't for the fact that Manchineel grabbed his shattered knee, stood up with it, then came crashing down with his knee in the middle of Goten's femur. A loud snap was the only thing heard as the electricity using Goten as a live wire prevented him from screaming in the agony he was feeling. The instant that bone was snapped, Goten lost the hold on his Super Saiyan transformation and his hair turned black and went back to the haphazard style his father was famous for. Then it only took one punch to the face to knock him out cold, the fight completely beaten out of him.

In three seconds, Goten's life would be extinguished because in three seconds the armor on his back would completely melt away and the ships power would have no resistance before reaching Goten's body. But Goten's life would not be taken this day for the instant he lost consciousness three figures dropped out of hyperspace and while two of them broke off to save Goten, the oldest and strongest dived straight at Manchineel and with brutally heavy punch knocked the bloody Legend through the wall, through the ship's exoskeleton, and down into Quindflear's atmosphere. Manchineel and Goten would live, but both had received injuries that neither had suffered for a very long time. Very briefly the empty vacuum of space pulled at the hallway's occupants, but the ships automated breach system sealed off the man sized hole before all of the oxygen and people onboard could be sucked out.

On the very verge of death, Goten smiled. For even subconsciously he could recognize the strong presence of his brother Gohan.


End file.
